What has public health done for us lately? Soon, we may not know
Earlier this month, when the recommendations of the commission “Make America Healthy Again” by the Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, were disclosed, I had an unhappy exchange with a former supporter of our organization, who considered that we should do more to celebrate the success of the administration to make companies undertake to eliminate synthetic food colors, CSPI.
I have urged our ex-soupçon to examine more and more how fast the managers appointed by President Trump have dismantled public health systems since January, losses that will cause deep damage. He was not convinced: “No one in charge of your life has done a fucking thing that has marked any improvement in the health of our country,” he applauded. Like many things disappointed by the government, he saw no reason to worry about losing a public health system which, for him, had no advantage.
It made me think: “Are there public health victories in food security in my life?” I was born in 1982 in Seattle, so my mind went immediately when I was 11 years old, listening to local public radio and hearing about a fatal epidemic of contaminated hamburgers sold to the Jack in the box regional channel. Washington investigators Department of Public Health had identified an unusually high impact of hemolytic uremic syndrome, sometimes a complication of E. coli infection and, thanks to a meticulous interview with patients by epidemiologists, were able to trace the source to the burgers sold to the chain and finally to five feedencers with federal regulation. Public indignation following this incident, in which four children died, sparked an avalanche of change at the USDA and in the meat industry, and led to the prohibition of E. Pathogenic coli chopped beef. Finally, he also gave birth to modern food security regulations, implementing danger control techniques launched by the American space program.
Not only did public health systems worked to identify the cause of the Jack in the Box epidemic, but they also offered a way to follow the impact of new policies: in tandem with new approaches, CDC managers have created a baptized system, the active surveillance network of food diseases (Foodnet), which, since 1996, has been monitored by the agency. Thanks to Foodnet, we can now see that a government prohibition on E. coli pathogen in the chopped beef had an impact: in the decade which followed the prohibition, the incidence of the food disease of the pathogenic agent fell by more than 40%.
Foodnet can also show when public health interventions do not work. It was a lack of progress in Salmonella Diseases, revealed by Foodnet, who forced the USDA to reconsider its regulation of Salmonella In poultry in 2021, moving to replace the standards that surveillance had proved ineffective with new standards prohibiting high -risk salmonella in poultry, similar to the stages that had worked well in the chopped beef. This initiative was also widely sidelined by the Trump administration.
Now, with many other aspects of public health, the detection and monitoring systems of CDC food diseases are threatened. The programs that have been faced with financial pressure during the years of flat funding by a divided congress are now about to collapse under new pressures to reduce costs and drop civil servants through the government.
These critical programs include subsidies in blocks to states to help resolve epidemics, systems such as the Pulsenet of the CDC, which uses the DNA fingerprint to identify epidemic clusters, and the coordinated response of the FDA and the evaluation team, which is responsible for identifying foods that cause epidemics and their return to their source.
Now Foodnet seems to be the first of these systems to show external signs of damage, reducing its activities in the face of resource pressure. Food Safety News confirmed this week that Foodnet will reduce the follow -up of pathogens of food origin of eight pathogens for two, because the funding has not followed the pace of system resources needs. This loss of surveillance means that we will no longer have a clear image of knowing whether the steps to improve food security really work for many pathogens that make us sick.
In the end, I cannot know how to persuade a supporter of the position of secretary Kennedy on synthetic dyes that epidemory prevention should have as much importance as food chemical security. And I don’t have to assert this case, because mass shots and the lack of FDA staff and other agencies undermine the two types of work. Without strong regulations, victories of food safety chemicals, such as the prohibition of transFat (estimated to prevent 50,000 deaths per year) would not have been possible.
The fact that so many Americans apparently do not recognize the recent advantages of public health programs represent an epic failure of communication and political systems, more than any reflection on the role that these institutions play in improving our lives.
One thing is clear: we cannot understand what is happening to our health if the evidence of the population’s health results are never recorded. This is why programs and people who detect and prevent the disease are at the heart of public health. Programs like Foodnet are the eyes of public health, helping us see otherwise invisible threats. Keeping these programs at full power should be our top priority.
About the author: Sarah Sorsher is an experienced lawyer with a passion for public health who fights for a safer, healthier and more transparent food system by promoting consumer guarantees with congress, federal agencies and governments of states and premises. As director of regulatory affairs, she manages the political work of the CSPI linked to food security and labeling, allergens, food additives, food supplements and other consumer products. His work includes sitting on federal counseling committees, testifying before the congress and federal agencies, to offer technical advice to decision -makers and provide comments to the media on consumer and food safety problems.
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