Your statement regarding telling sheep not to smoke reminded me of an incident about 7 years ago.
In the town next to me, the public health department was screaming that they did not have enough money, and that more taxes were needed. They threatened to close down some departments if they did not get increased funding.
They planned to lay off the people who collected dead animals lying in the streets, but yet they wanted to keep the people who ran the smoking cessation programs.
It was so ridiculous.
It’s actually kind of sad that taxpayers don’t realize what a little %age of their tax dollars (even in a highly regarded agency like the CDC)...really goes to the prevention/control of actual disease.
But h#ll...at least the CDC gets a bit of your tax dollars into the right spot...they are nowhere near as bad as most government agencies...which do almost nothing at all.