‘Americans should be alarmed’: Experts say loss of expertise at CDC will harm US health | US healthcare

AHigh -level departures and scanning layoffs, American disease control and prevention centers (CDC) face unprecedented loss of expertise and a simultaneous erosion of confidence, because the main health leaders undermine vaccines and other vital health tools.

“The Americans should be alarmed,” said Nirav Shah, former main assistant director of the CDC and now a guest professor at the Colby College. “All of these movements leave us less safe, and this comes at a time to increase public health threats.”

Project 2025, the conservative plan of the second Trump administration, promised to go beyond the CDC of its ability to make advice on vaccines and end the required tests for new pathogens.

Changes in American health will be felt for decades, and the cuts and changes will erode the already flickering of the public in health officials, according to experts.

“Losing high and experienced experts managing crucial units in the CDC will endanger us,” said Dorit Reiss, professor of law at UC Hastings College of Law.

The departure of four senior officials – Debra Houry, Demeter Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan and Jennifer Layden – carried “a blow for the preparation for the health of our country,” said Shah.

They joined thousands of employees from the Health Agency who were dismissed or resigned, with empty departments, since Donald Trump was re -elected.

“The next time there is a problem, we will not have a qualified leadership for our response,” said Reiss.

The loss of “world -class” expert “experts from the CDC is” directly linked to the Department of extremists from extremists “in charge of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS), said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

The losses can continue in budgetary reductions, with proposed reductions of $ 5 billion – a decrease of 42% compared to 2024.

On Wednesday, two of the recently ousted officials will testify before the Congress. Susan Monarerez, the most recent director of the CDC, who was dismissed after 28 days, criticized the “reckless” approach to administration science, including a request for “rubber” recommendations of the independent CDC advisers.

The Consultative Committee for Vaccination Practices (ACIP) plans to meet on Thursday and Friday. The advisers have indicated that the Committee would re -examine the recommendations on infant routine vaccinations such as those against hepatitis B and HPV (human papillomavirus).

The Make Our Children Healthy Again strategy published on Tuesday “reaffirms that Kennedy shoots for child vaccines,” said Reiss.

Emily Hilliard, HHS spokesperson, said: “Secretary Kennedy has been clear: the CDC has been broken for a long time. Restoring it as the most reliable public health guard in the world will have a sustained reform and more personnel changes. ”

Asked about Kennedy’s position on infant vaccines, Hilliard said HHS “reaffirms the importance of the doctor-patient relationship so that people can make informed decisions on their health”, emphasizing the roles of “clear and honest honest information”.

Kennedy has also limited access to hairstyle vaccines, only restricting them to “higher risks” people, while saying “anyone can get the booster”.

“Kennedy’s assertion that anyone can get them is deeply not sincere,” said Reiss. He has already deleted, for example, the recommendation for pregnant people, which makes them more difficult for them to access the vaccine.

“Although it is legal to give outside AMM vaccines, all doctors and pharmacists will not do so, and according to what the ACIP does, all insurers will not cover them”, including Medicaid, which is bound by the recommendations of the ACIP, she said.

Kennedy has repeatedly undermined the CDC and the vaccines, qualifying the “corruption power” agency and the vaccine codes, for example, the “most deadly vaccine ever made”. During the worst epidemic of measles for decades, Kennedy supervised vaccination as personal choice. He has also reduced millions of dollars to research on mRNA vaccines.

Earlier this month, Trump defended Covid and Polio vaccines. But the president gave Kennedy a sweeping control on the country’s health and nutrition program.

“At a time of growing threats to public health – be it measles, whether it is an epidemic of Ebola, or whether it is the concern and the continuous threat of H5 [bird flu] “None of these things makes America again healthy,” said Shah.

The acting director of the CDC, Jim O’Neill, has training in biotechnology investment, but he does not seem to have training in medicine or public health.

“Based on what I understand, he does not have the context required to be acting director,” said Shah, acting director of the CDC while the Trump administration has come into office.

“Americans must wonder:” Are we safe at the moment? “” Said Shah. “” Is there someone who knows at higher levels, what should he be faced with an emerging epidemic of Ebola? Does he do it? How do we know that? “”

The news that the best CDC experts have not informed Kennedy are “alarming,” said Shah. “If the main American generals planned a war and draw battlefield plans but had not spoken to any of their lieutenants and colonels on the ground, we would say that it is not leadership.”

So far, many Americans have not yet felt the waves of Kennedy changes in public health, Shah said.

For most people, “you can’t really see the consequences until there is an emergency,” said Shah. “And it is far too late at that time.”