This is us.

Picture forthcoming.

I moved to Atlanta for a new job at CDC, and just had to post this hilarious (I think unintentionally) description of what I apparently have signed on for, courtesy of one of the most prolific public health conspiracy theorists.

"At 1600 Clifton Road in Atlanta, Georgia, the mammoth brick towers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sprawl across clean manicured lawns. This is the Pentagon of government health - a $2 billion military prevention agency that monitors broken limbs and illness, and evangelizes on everything from malaria pills to gun control. Tucked into the midst of this labyrinth is the hub of a little known but extremely powerful network of health professionals. Think of its as the CIA of health care: the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), an elite, semi-secret unit, that is now almost fully secret. New graduates of medical schools, or biological graduate schools, or a few other things, are recruited upon graduation to take a several-week course, and then dispatched on two-year active assignment, paid by the CDC, to become the eyes and ears of the CDC -- an invisible intelligence network that watches for the tiniest clusters of disease, and, when the CDC deems appropriate, turns them into national emergencies.

"Even after those two years, every member of the EIS becomes part of a permanent reserve officer corps for the CDC that could be called up in case of national emergency or time of war, to serve as officers of their respective ranks, with actual emergency powers. The nearly 2,000 alumni have gone on to high positions in society, though rarely advertising their affiliation. Today many of these people, by sitting in foundations, major companies, the new media, Surgeon General's office, and other key positions politically, act as silent advocates for the CDC, echoing the CDC's viewpoint whenever it needs support. So of course that's a very influential network, and I might add that as of about one year ago, because of too many outside requests for the membership directory of the EIS, the CDC has recently suppressed the availability of this directory. They no longer want people knowing what the membership is."

-- Bryan Ellison

(I'm just waiting to learn the secret handshake. Rumor is that class is next week.)