"Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence"
Just looking at the state of things I'm going to lean towards the side of incompetence.
There is no way the gov't knew that removing Iodine from bread and replacing it with its DIRECT antagonists, Bromine, was paving another brick in the road of the worlds Iodine deficiency.
I'm sure the votes making the big decisions never intended to knock the avg. Iq down an entire SD and instill a general epidemic of anxiety when they added a known neurotoxin and antagonist to Iodine, Flouride, to our water supply.
Why do these elements antagonize and frustrate Iodine?
It's all in the Family.
Flouride, Bromine, and to a lesser extent, Chlorine closely resemble Iodine. The body cannot tell the difference between one form of Halogen or another so it will use whatever fits and is available.
Flouride and Bromine are rampant. We use them in our antibiotics, toothpaste, drinking water, foods(look out for -bromides), furniture and mattress for flame retardants, etc etc. Basically if you are living a life in the US you are taking in copious amounts of the toxic elements a day.
These bind in your thyroid and really gum up the works and frustrating any chance for the minuscule amount of Iodine you are getting to remedy the situation.
The good news is as soon as you begin to supplement with Iodine the other lighter and less dense Halogens are swiftly displaced as detoxification occurs. You can expect plenty of trips to the bathroom as you piss out all the toxins.
It is quite important that you stay very well hydrated during your first few doses as your body will expel fluids quite frequently to flush everything out. Also, supplementing with Real Salt(think Himalayan Sea Salt), Magnesium, and Selenium can ease the process.