Many top officials from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have left the agency under Robert F Kennedy Jr’s leadership. Now, many of those leaders and healthcare officials are saying that “Americans should be alarmed” about the future and rising public health threats.
Under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘s leadership as the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, there have been many high-profile departures and layoffs from top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Now, many of those experts and top health officials throughout the US are warning about the future of the nation’s health.
Top health leaders are now undermining vaccines and other valuable health tools with Project 2025 vowing to remove the CDC’s ability to issue guidance on vaccines and ending required testing of pathogens.
Nirav Shah, the former principal deputy director at the CDC, said that “Americans should be alarmed. All of these moves leave us less safe and it comes at a time of rising public health threats,” the Guardian reports.
Experts like Dorit Reiss, a professor of law at UC Hastings College of Law, are emphasizing that these changes will be felt long into the future, and will hinder the public’s trust in health officials.
“Losing top experienced experts managing crucial units in the CDC is going to put all of us at risk.”
Thousands of health agency employees have been laid off or have resigned since Donald Trump was re-elected, and entire departments have been gutted. Specifically, Shah emphasized the departure of Debra Hourty, Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan, and Jennifer Layden, four senior officials, as a major “blow to our nation’s health preparedness,” according to the Guardian.
“Next time there’s a problem, we will not have qualified leadership for our response,” Reiss stated.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said that the large removal of “experienced, world-class” experts at the CDC is “directly related to the failed leadership of extremists,” within the government, and specifically the Department of Health and Human Services.
Susan Monarez, former CDC director, is one of two recently removed officials who will be testifying before Congress this week. Monarez has criticized the administration’s “reckless” moves in the name of science.
Additionally, it’s been reported that the advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP) will be meeting later this week to re-examine recommendations on routine childhood vaccines as a part of the “Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy.”
“[This strategy] reaffirms that Kennedy is gunning for childhood vaccines,” Reiss stated.
HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said: “Secretary Kennedy has been clear: the CDC has been broken for a long time. Restoring it as the world’s most trusted guardian of public health will take sustained reform and more personnel changes.”
“[HHS] is reaffirming the importance of the doctor-patient relationship so people can make informed decisions about their health,” Hilliard said regarding Kennedy’s stance on childhood vaccines. She emphasized the aspects of “clear honest information and personal choice.”
Shah echoed Reiss regarding Kennedy’s strategies and the emphasis the HHS has placed on “making America healthy again.”
“In an era of rising threats to public health – whether it’s measles, whether it’s an Ebola outbreak, or whether it’s the continuing concern and threat from H5 [bird flu] – none of these things makes America healthy again.”
Kennedy and the HHS has also made headlines recently over the limitation of access to new Covid-19 vaccines, making them reserved for people at a “higher risk.” However, he also juxtaposed this claim stating that “anyone can get the booster,” leaving many Americans confused regarding their ability to get the shot or not.
“Kennedy’s claim that anyone can get them is deeply insincere,” Reiss said. “While it’s legal to give vaccines off-label, not all doctors and pharmacists will, and depending what ACIP does, not all insurers will cover them.”
Kennedy has been undermining both the CDC and vaccines, calling the agency “a cesspool of corruption,” and referred to the Covid-19 vaccine as the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” While Trump has defended the Covid vaccine, he’s given Kennedy “sweeping” control over the nation’s health and nutrition agenda.
“In an era of rising threats to public health – whether it’s measles, whether it’s an Ebola outbreak, or whether it’s the continuing concern and threat from H5 [bird flu] – none of these things makes America healthy again,” Shah said.
Jim O’Neill is the current acting director of the CDC. O’Neill does not appear to have any training in medicine or public health, but does have a background in biotechnology investing.
Shah, who was acting director of the CDC when the Trump administration entered the White House, said that regarding O’Neill, “based on what I understand, he does not have the requisite background to even be serving as acting director.”
“Americans need to ask themselves: ‘Are we safe right now? ‘Is there somebody who knows at the higher levels what should be done in the face of an emerging Ebola outbreak? Are they doing it? How do we know that?’”
Shah emphasized how at the moment, Americans “have not yet felt the shock waves of Kennedy’s change for public health. You don’t actually see the consequences of it until there’s an emergency, and it’s way too late at that point.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
