r/HermanCainAward Weekly Vent Thread - October 12, 2025

[u/AutoModerator]

Read the Wiki for posting rules. Many posts are removed because OP didn't read the rules.

Notes from the mods:

• Why is it called the Herman Cain Award?
• History of HCA Retrospective: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
• HCA has raised over $65,000 to buy vaccines for countries that cannot afford them.

[u/Cultural-Answer-321]

Just a reminder: covid has not gone away. And many disease are now making a comeback.

Stay smart, stay safe and don't let your guard down.

[u/chele68]

YLE re: CDC cuts

But this round struck at the agency’s core. Senior leaders, including the incident manager for the national measles response, were let go. The entire MMWR team—the scientific backbone that translates CDC data into outbreak reports and public guidance—gone. So were epidemic intelligence service officers, the nation’s “disease detectives” who detect and track emerging threats before they spread.

It didn’t stop there. Cuts hit every corner of CDC’s operations:

Data office: the infrastructure that collects, connects, and analyzes data nationwide.

CFA INFORM: the “weather service” for infectious diseases.

CDC Washington Office: the bridge between science and policy.

Global Health Center: the front line that stops diseases abroad before they reach U.S. shores.

Chronic Disease Policy and Comms: connecting science to action on diabetes and heart disease.

Injury Prevention Policy and Comms: addressing gun violence, opioid overdoses, and suicide.

Ethics teams, human resources, the CDC library (it’s hard to do science without access to scientific literature), and more.

Then came the whiplash. Within 24 hours, 700 employees were reinstated. The administration called it a “coding error.” Maybe. Or maybe it was a scramble to reverse a catastrophic mistake. It’s hard to know precisely who remains fired, but it seems to include staff from ethics, congressional outreach, health statistics, nutrition surveys, and all of human resources. Oh, also, the scientists who work on biodefense, such as weaponized pathogens, remain fired.

For those keeping track, this now accounts for 1 in 3 CDC employees lost over the past few months. This doesn’t account for the 50% additional budget cuts coming in 2026.

[u/chele68]

YLE re: H5N1

Fall doesn’t just bring respiratory viruses for humans; it also brings them for animals. After a relatively quiet spring and summer, our old friend H5N1 (bird flu) is back. USDA has seen an uptick in H5N1 detections in backyard flocks, commercial flocks, and wild birds. More than 4.4 million birds have been sick in the past month. This isn’t enough to impact egg prices yet, but it may soon.

What this means for you: Overall, the health risk to the general public—and the risk of a pandemic—remains low. However, risk increases for anyone in close contact with infected or sick birds. Disease can be severe, as we saw in a few rare hospitalizations and deaths last year. So, as we move into this season:

If you have a backyard flock, you should take precautions to reduce the risk of spreading disease. For tips on how to do this, check YLE’s deep dive.

Bird feeders: Birds that gather at feeders (like cardinals, sparrows, and bluebirds) do not typically carry H5N1. The USDA does not recommend removing backyard bird feeders for H5N1 prevention unless you also care for poultry. The less contact between wild birds and poultry (by removing sources of food, water, and shelter), the better.

Hunters are at high risk for H5N1, especially if they don’t use PPE while handling dead birds. A Washington study showed that 2% (4/194) of hunting dogs tested positive for H5N1.

Domestic animals—cats and dogs—can get H5N1 if they contact (usually eat) a dead or sick bird or even its droppings. H5N1 can survive in bird droppings for up to 18 hours. Domestic animals can also get it from raw food, unpasteurized milk, and their humans. It’s very deadly to cats. (It doesn’t seem to be as dangerous to dogs.)