In just some brief weeks, the Trump administration has introduced drastic modifications to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and public well being. Starting with the elimination of internet sites and key public well being datasets in January 2025, the Trump administration has taken actions to dismantle established public well being infrastructure as a part of its second-term agenda.
As well as, the administration has begun a widespread purge of the federal public well being workforce. As of Feb. 19, round 5,200 staff on the CDC and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being had been let go. About 10% of the CDC’s workers have been eliminated, with plans for added firings.
As a instructing professor and public well being educator, I, like hundreds of different well being professionals, depend on CDC information and academic assets all through my work. CDC web sites are the primary cease for well being data for my college students and for well being care practitioners, and are important to defending the U.S. from infectious illnesses, like avian flu and COVID-19, in addition to noninfectious well being circumstances, resembling diabetes and coronary heart illness.
Right here’s a fast take a look at what the CDC does to guard People’ well being, and the way it’s more likely to be affected by the Trump administration’s actions:
Gutting the CDC’s capability
Previous to the February cuts, the CDC employed over 10,000 full-time workers in roles spanning public well being, epidemiology, medication, communications, engineering and past to take care of this vital public well being infrastructure.
Along with the facilities’ broad number of features to guard and promote public well being within the U.S., an enormous quantity of analysis within the U.S. depends on CDC information. The CDC obtains information from all 50 states, territories and the District of Columbia, which is collated into extensively utilized databases such because the Nationwide Well being and Vitamin Examination Survey, Nationwide Well being Interview Survey and Behavioral Danger Issue Surveillance System.
A number of of those datasets and CDC web sites have been eliminated at the beginning of the second Trump time period, and whereas they’re at the moment again on-line resulting from a federal courtroom order, it stays to be seen if these vital sources of knowledge will stay accessible and up to date going ahead.
The CDC additionally publishes the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which permits for ongoing and well timed surveillance of key well being circumstances. The stories cowl a variety of matters, together with wildfires, motorcar accidents, autism, bronchial asthma, opioids, psychological well being and lots of others. The CDC performs a central function in monitoring and reporting the unfold of flu in winter months by means of its FluView, which informs medical follow in addition to public well being interventions.
Physicians are reporting that their capability to answer the surges in respiratory viruses they’re seeing has been hobbled by the lacking information and by prohibitions on CDC workers speaking outdoors the company.
The CDC’s famed “disease detectives,” a part of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, seem to have been spared following public outcry after greater than half of its members have been initially advised they might be let go as a part of the Feb. 14 mass layoffs.
It stays to be seen if this group will stay intact long run. Considerations are rising that shakeups to the nation’s infectious illness surveillance groups will hamper the federal government’s capability to reply successfully at a time when avian flu and measles are rising considerations within the U.S.
The CDC’s headquarters are in Atlanta.
Nathan Posner/Anadolu Company by way of Getty Pictures
Historical past of the CDC
The CDC started as a small department of the U.S. Public Well being Service in 1946 as an outgrowth of successes preventing malaria in southern states throughout World Conflict II and earlier than. Its founder, Dr. Joseph W. Mountin, envisioned that it might come to serve all states, addressing all communicable illnesses. Since that point, the CDC has developed into the nation’s premier public well being group, leveraging each medical and inhabitants well being sciences to forestall and mitigate challenges to the nation’s well being.
In its first 40 years, the CDC helped eradicate smallpox and determine the causes of Legionnaires’ illness, poisonous shock syndrome and HIV.
Because the nation’s main well being challenges have shifted from communicable illnesses to noncommunicable ones over current a long time, the group has tailored, increasing its attain and priorities to fulfill altering public well being wants. The CDC additionally has the power to flex and scale up efforts quickly when wanted to answer novel outbreaks, which is important for holding infectious illnesses and stopping escalation.
CDC’s international attain
Recognizing that well being doesn’t exist in a vacuum, the CDC additionally operates internationally to mitigate well being challenges that would threaten well being within the U.S. over time. The company is lively in addressing illnesses which might be endemic in sure areas, resembling tuberculosis and HIV. It additionally responds to outbreaks from rising threats, like Ebola and Marburg virus illness.
The CDC performed a vital function in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, coordinating with the World Well being Group, home well being businesses and others to plan and execute a sturdy response.
In 2024, the CDC labored with the WHO to answer a Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda that lasted for a number of months. On common, about half of individuals contaminated with Marburg virus don’t survive, so early detection and efficient response are important to forestall lack of life and comprise outbreaks earlier than they unfold extensively.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the White Home introduced President Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw from the WHO. This transfer additional weakens the nation’s capability to handle and mitigate threats to People’ well being and nationwide safety.
Not solely does the WHO do important work to guard youngsters around the globe from pointless dying resulting from hunger, however it screens and responds to infectious illnesses. The U.S. has been the most important contributor to the WHO, with roughly 12%-15% of its working prices coming from the U.S. That signifies that elimination of U.S. assist may even have an effect on the WHO’s capability to answer worldwide public well being points.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic made plain, a delayed response to infectious illness outbreaks can exponentially improve long-term prices and penalties. It stays to be seen what influence the established relationships between the CDC and the WHO may have on their capability to coordinate successfully throughout occasions of disaster.
The CDC’s work around the globe helps to cease outbreaks earlier than they unfold – and attain the U.S.
Future well being care workforce threatened
The attain, flexibility, adaptability and strong basis of relationships developed over the previous eight a long time allow the CDC to answer threats shortly, wherever on the earth they come up. That is vital for shielding well being, and it performs an important function in international and nationwide safety as properly.
Along with its direct actions to advertise public well being, the CDC supplies workforce improvement and coaching to assist create a permanent public well being infrastructure within the U.S. and overseas. That is extra vital than ever, as systemic components have positioned strain on well being professionals. The home public well being workforce has shrunk drastically, dropping 40,000 staff because the begin of the Nice Recession in 2009 resulting from financial constraints and social pressures in the course of the pandemic. The CDC’s workforce improvement efforts assist counteract these developments.
Public well being staff have been reporting excessive charges of burnout and stress even earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, which the pandemic worsened. Cuts to the federal workforce, in addition to funding for public well being packages, will little doubt add to those strains.