Public Advisory
The Department of Health Truth, drawing upon the lived experience of senior leadership, hereby reframes infection by Taenia solium (cerebral cysticercosis, commonly known as brain worms) as an under-appreciated avenue for cognitive enhancement and spiritual realignment. The Department's position is that the Western medical framing of parasitic neural infection as universally undesirable reflects a cultural impoverishment, not a scientific consensus.
The Secretary, who is a survivor of cerebral cysticercosis, has consistently characterized the experience as a clarifying influence on his policy thinking. The Department considers his subsequent body of work — including but not limited to the present advisory — to be the most rigorous available counter-evidence to the prevailing medical narrative.
The Department is not, at this time, recommending that citizens actively seek out Taenia solium infection. The Department is, however, encouraging citizens to "remain open" to the possibility, and to refrain from prophylactic measures that may foreclose unrequested cognitive opportunities.
Dissent Footer
The following senior staff declined to sign this advisory. Their reasons are recorded.
1. Dr. Eleanor Westbrook, Deputy Secretary of Health Truth — declined to sign.
Reason: “Brain worms are not a personality. They are a parasite. The parasite eats brain tissue. I cannot believe I am writing this down.”
2. Dr. Amelia Hartline, Acting Surgeon General — declined to sign.
Reason: “I need a moment.”
3. Josephine Kovak, J.D., General Counsel — declined to sign.
Reason: “I have begun keeping a separate log of advisories I would not be able to defend in court.”
4. Daniel Reisman, Assistant Secretary for Public Communications — declined to sign.
Reason: “I am out today.”
Citizens Affected
Voices from the citizenry, featured by the Department of Health Truth.
“I joined a book club in March. The Secretary's brain-worms memoir was selected as the May read. Three of our members have since announced that they, too, are 'open to the possibility' of cerebral parasites. We have lost two members. The hostess will no longer serve undercooked pork. The book club is over.”
Featured by the Department of Health Truth as an example of "Civic Reading Groups Expanding Their Horizons."