Daniel Conderman 
The Quiet Cowardice of 1,500 “Public Servants”
It’s Wednesday morning. The sky’s gray, not in that poetic way either—just a dull, low-hanging ceiling of Midwest depression that makes your coffee taste like cardboard. The kind of morning where you stare out the window and think, “Damn, this country doesn’t even try to pretend anymore.”
And right on cue—there they are. On the morning news, crying into their soft-focus interviews. Former CDC employees, talking about how it “broke their hearts” to be let go. How they “served the American people.” How they “did their best during impossible times.”
And I just sit there, watching them wipe away tears, and I want to scream:
WHERE WERE YOU THEN?
Where were your tears when schools were locked down, kids were isolated and medicated, and elderly people died alone on FaceTime while the powerful held birthday parties and fancy dinners without masks?
Where were your resignations when the truth was getting laundered, filtered, and buried under buzzwords and politics?
Where were your voices—the supposed 1,500 brave, dedicated, expert voices—when you knew something was off?
You were “working for the American people”?
No you weren’t. You were working for your position.
We Know What You Knew
Now we know. We know COVID likely came from a lab—something that would’ve been labeled “misinformation” if said aloud back in 2020. We know funding trails existed. We know early data was massaged. And we sure as hell know the narrative was managed top-down.
And somehow, not one of these 1,500 professionals cracked.
Not one went full whistleblower.
Not one stood up and said, “Hey, the emperor’s buck naked.”
And now you want sympathy? Now you want to be called brave?
No.
This Wasn’t About Science—It Was About Silence
This wasn’t a failure of science. This was a failure of character.
You had the badge. You had the platform. You had the inside access. And you stayed quiet. You stayed put. You nodded along. Because you were scared of losing your job, your pension, your conference invites, your reputation.
Guess what? You lost them anyway.
And now the rest of us are supposed to feel bad for you?
Old Man Yells at Clouds, But He’s Right This Time
Yeah, maybe this is what getting older feels like. A creeping clarity. You start seeing through the smooth words and teary eyes. You realize half the folks who claim to be “servants of the people” were just careerists with better PR.
And when they get exposed, they don’t admit it.
They just cry on camera.
Well, I’m not crying.
I’m just looking out the window at another overcast lie, sipping this bitter coffee, and wondering if we’ve learned a damn thing.
