It’s pretty unsettling when you can no longer trust the people tasked with protecting public health because they are not only incompetent, but on the fringe. When their appointments are based on politics, not actual experience and merit. When you believe some are crazy as loons.

Most of us grew up believing that public health officials would put truth above politics, caution above ego, and people above image management. We believed competence mattered. We believed transparency mattered. We believed that when crises emerged, experts would level with us honestly—even when the news was hard.

But over the past few years, confidence in public health officials has eroded in real time. And for good reason.

Advice shifted constantly. Some changes are understandable; science evolves. But that’s not what was happening. It was politics at work.

Too often, the explanations behind those changes in advice have been incomplete, defensive, contradictory, or politically filtered. Legitimate questions were and still are dismissed instead of addressed. Concerned citizens were labeled rather than engaged. And once trust is broken, even good guidance becomes harder to accept. Who do we trust? The answer: no one in government.

That’s the real danger.

Public health depends on public trust. Without trust, people stop listening. They begin relying on rumors, influencers, partisan voices, or fear. The result is confusion, division, and cynicism at exactly the moment clarity is needed most.

That’s where we’re at now with the incompetents in charge of our health and well-being.

Competence matters because people’s lives are involved. So does humility, also lacking in this administration. Officials don’t have to know everything immediately—but they do need to communicate honestly about uncertainty, admit mistakes when they happen, and avoid speaking with false certainty simply to maintain authority.

Not happening.

It’s no wonder that so many of us feel abandoned by public health institutions that once felt dependable. We expected better. We’re not only disappointed, but terrified, because we know that our very survival is at stake.

That’s the hardest part. The decisions these incompetents make can mean the difference between life and death for some. And that’s no small thing.

When trust in public health breaks down, it affects more than policy. It changes how safe we feel in the world. It leaves us wondering who is telling the truth, whose interests are being served, and whether ordinary people are being treated as citizens to inform—or audiences to manage.

Or rather, we know that we don’t matter to officials except as votes.

Rebuilding trust will take more than slogans and press conferences. It will require transparency, accountability, competence, and the willingness to respect the intelligence of the public.

And I don’t see that happening in this administration.

Gutted is too small a word for how I feel.