Katherine Watt has been corresponding with a reader who is researching the history of US public health and regulatory agencies. Records before 1973 are difficult to locate. However, what has become clear is that the origins of these agencies are not what they make them out to be. Why are they lying about their origins? Because, Watt says, “they have maintained a bunch of empty office buildings that serve only as mailing addresses … There are no technicians in the buildings, there’s no equipment and no sample testing occurs.”