Partisanship Is Poisoning Public Health
It is not normal for public health to be so partisan.
The current administration has slashed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) programs that protect Americans from cancer, heart disease, stroke, birth defects and work-related harm. It derailed vital programs created by President George W. Bush that protected children from malaria and prevented the spread of HIV, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. The scientist chosen by this administration to lead the CDC was fired after less than a month. Most of the CDC’s top leadership was fired or resigned, as were more than a quarter of the CDC’s staff. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. replaced the advisory panel that issues vaccine advice with people who know little about vaccines and who made recommendations that do not reflect the evidence. This partisanship is unhealthy and poisons our societal immune system.
When public health succeeds, we don’t notice: the water, air, and food don’t make us sick, and our children don’t get hit by cars, start smoking, or get preventable infections. But when public health fails, we suffer.
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Fewer people are receiving COVID and other life-saving vaccines, the government is slower to respond to outbreaks, and smokers are finding it harder to quit due to cuts to quit smoking hotlines and anti-smoking campaigns. The most dangerous harms will be less visible: ending the systems that track risks to mothers and infants and other systems that track and stop health risks. When we fail to detect threats as quickly or respond as quickly, the next health disaster risks being deadlier than it otherwise would be.
Scientists, medical professionals, community leaders, and everyone who cares about facts and fairness must protect what keeps us safe, fix what’s broken, and lay the foundation for faster, more effective health and public health systems.
To do this, we must first stop the bleeding, starting with the disease of misinformation. Distrust leads to preventable illness and death; a real-time “health beacon” could counter today’s wave of lies. Artificial intelligence can detect emerging rumors and draft initial responses for review by specialists; Experts can curate evidence-based, nonpartisan, verifiable responses that debunk predictable myths and debunk new viral claims. Fact-based messages, shared through short, engaging videos and trusted channels, can help the truth spread as quickly as lies.
A particularly pressing area is vaccines. Misinformation profiteers spread the false claim that vaccines cause autism, sell unproven “detox” therapies, and undermine trust. Secretary Kennedy’s team is seeking to make autism compensable under vaccination injury rules, turning diagnoses into baseless lawsuits while draining resources from actual causes and care. Scientists, clinicians, and informed citizens should publicly challenge false claims, support credible sources of evidence, and urge policymakers to base their decisions on facts.
Only the national government can coordinate disease surveillance across borders, fund specialized laboratories, ensure vaccine safety, manage stocks and emergency responses, and support national health services. We should all demand that Congress – and hope the courts – end cuts to staff and programs that Congress did not approve and restore critical protections that keep people safe. Congress must also require HHS to spend and account for the funds it has authorized.
But when the federal system fails, others must protect people from preventable harm. States, cities, and professional corporations cannot replace national capabilities, but they can prevent the collapse of essential protections. The recently launched Northeast Health Collaborative, connecting 10 states and cities, shares data, laboratory resources and outbreak expertise to preserve essential functions and test practical innovations. Northwest states are also organizing, and a national network of 15 states now coordinates responses to emerging threats.
Professional societies can also fill gaps. When official COVID-19 vaccine guidance weakened, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Academy of Family Physicians issued clear, evidence-based recommendations for children, pregnant women, and adults. Other organizations must follow.
Universities and state governments must step up their efforts to preserve and collect data. CDC and other health datasets must be preserved; Ongoing data collection is expected to continue through states, universities and researchers. Without data, we cannot see risks and progress, repair failures and defend successes.
We need to build a system that works faster and more transparently. The 7-1-7 goal – detect outbreaks within seven days, report them within one day, and implement essential control measures within seven more days – is one such system and shows what a faster response can achieve. Developed by my organization and used in nearly 50 countries, this approach sets measurable goals that accelerate progress and strengthen accountability. In Uganda, during a recent cholera outbreak near a border area, disease detectives met 7-1-7 targets, demonstrating that faster action can stop outbreaks. Few jurisdictions in the United States measure response speed – and those that do often find that they fall short of their goals, but improve once they track the results. When every epidemic becomes a means to improve, systems improve more quickly and transparency of results builds trust, both among the public and among those who decide how to finance health protection systems.
The results build confidence. When air quality improves and asthma attacks decrease, people notice. When contaminated water is cleaned, communities feel safer. When outbreaks are stopped quickly, confidence grows.
We must prevent partisanship from interfering with the core systems that keep us safe. Every year we fail to strengthen our health defenses, lives are lost and costs rise. Every month we let distrust spread, the next outbreak becomes harder to stop.
Public health should not be partisan. We can get back on track by doing what public health does best: seeing the threats clearly, believing in the possibilities for progress, and working together to build a healthier future. This is the See/Believe/Create approach that I describe in my book, The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives, Including Yours. This formula has saved millions of lives and holds the key to protecting, rebuilding and strengthening our society’s immune system before the next crisis strikes.
This is an opinion and analysis article, and the opinions expressed by the author(s) are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
