Before 2020 the CDC was largely ignored. It's best known recommendation that was (and still is) widely mocked is to cook hamburgers and steaks into hockey pucks and shoe leather, respectively. To kill all of those icky dangerous parasites that might be lurking in those delicious, mouth-watering carnivorous delights. It was commonplace a most high-end restaurants to toss a chef who'd serve a medium-well or well-done steak into the alley along with their final check. Even worse in Texas, where they might end up hanging from tall timber. You don't mess with beef in Texas.

The fact that ANYBODY listened to the CDC with that resume has been shocking to anyone who knows and appreciates great meat. They're clowns, indeed.