CDC director looks to future of public health with worry

Source: Roll Call

Posted November 20, 2024 at 10:29am


With two months to go before the end of the Biden administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Mandy Cohen says she’s worried about the future of the public health agency and the people it serves. House GOP appropriators are pushing a 22 percent cut to the sprawling public health agency. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a vaccine skeptic, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.

And years after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, skepticism about public health agencies remains, despite the agency’s work to restore trust in it and its efforts. “I don’t want to go backwards and see children or adults suffer or lose their lives to remind us that vaccines work, and so I am concerned,” Cohen said. “Any misinformation coming from places of influence or power are concerning.”

Cohen’s replacement at the CDC — who will work under Kennedy, assuming Kennedy is confirmed — has yet to be picked. But he or she will play a key role in public health infrastructure, with a say in vaccine recommendations and a voice influencing whether the U.S. participates in global public health agreements.

She worries that whoever is picked, combined with Kennedy and a Republican-led Congress skeptical of the agency, will undo much of the progress the Biden administration made in upping vaccination coverage and reducing unnecessary deaths. So she’s spending the last few months of her tenure climbing Capitol Hill, meeting with lawmakers to make the case for the CDC’s work in public health. “I think the best defense is a good offense, meaning we do our job well and show our value,” Cohen said.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2024/11/20/cdc-director-looks-to-future-of-public-health-with-worry/