A Clear Idea to Improve Public Health

As whatever comes out of the mouth of the conspiracy-drunk, addled-brained and predatorial RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary is now official federal health policy despite zero evidence, science or research to support it, we have to come up with ways to counter the resulting public health ignorance of our fellow citizens.

I thought of one while sitting in the waiting room of Fuller’s Carwash in Geneva, Illinois, this past Saturday. As most car washes have gone fully automatic, Fuller’s is one of the few places in my neck of the woods that offers a full menu of automatic and manual car wash services. Because of that, Fuller’s has a big waiting room where customers sit and figure out how much to tip the human beings putting the final touches on your car after it comes out of the car wash tunnel clean but dripping wet.

I sat down to wait my turn, only to hear and then see Fox News on the widescreen TV hanging there. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was on the screen, lying about tariffs, taxes and inflation. I got up and walked outside to wait for my car. As I did, I said out loud, “I don’t listen to Nazi propaganda,” to which several people turned, looked at me, said nothing, but gave me their unapproving MAGA stares.

As I sat on the wooden bench outside, watching two likely immigrants working hard for just tips to support themselves and their families by drying off cars, I thought about how many other waiting rooms have TVs on with the Fox propaganda channel playing 24/7. Car washes, car dealerships, restaurants with takeout sections, pharmacies, pickup areas in big-box stores, hospital emergency departments. The list goes on. Anywhere customers wait patiently for products or services typically has a TV, and the default channel for most is Fox.

No wonder America is so stupid. We’re bombarded by MAGA lies everywhere we go. Who has the nerve to ask a cashier, desk clerk, registration person or pharmacy tech to change the channel? Have you ever asked a bartender to turn on a different game? You’re taking your life into your own hands.

That’s a long setup for my free public health idea. If you run a corporation with locally owned franchises with waiting rooms with TVs, require those franchises to run public service announcements from state, regional and local health departments that follow evidence-based, science-tested and research-proven public health guidance. Get your flu shot. Get your COVID booster. Get your aged-based immunizations and vaccines. You know, the aged-based immunization and vaccines schedules that existed before Trump let RFK Jr. scribbled all over them.

Every full-service car wash, every car dealership service area, every oil change franchise, every restaurant with take-out seating, every pharmacy with chairs, every hospital emergency department waiting room, every big-box store pickup area, all sharing life-saving public health information with customers 24/7.

Every marketer I know says we need to meet customers where they are, and that’s where they are most of the time: waiting for something. Why not tell them something useful rather than lying to them about tariffs, taxes and inflation as they pay $43 plus tip for a full-service car wash?

Thanks for reading.