What Becomes of the CDC Now?

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The events of the last 48 hours have left the U.S. public health community shaken to its core. The shockwaves from the resignations at the top of the CDC, once regarded as the world’s leading public health agency, will reverberate far beyond America’s borders. Even more sobering are the words in resignation letters and media interviews: an institution that once stood firmly on science and evidence, now hollowed out and steadily replaced by misinformed ideological stances on vaccines and other essential interventions.

Like so many in public and global health, I have my own CDC story. Mine is not decades of service on the frontlines of outbreaks or a long career as an epidemiologist. My connection began in 2006, the very first time I visited the United States. As a final-year medical student in Cameroon, I was awarded a three-month fellowship at CDC’s Global AIDS Program (GAP). The project was a collaboration between my medical school and scientists at the CDC. I had collected specimens from pregnant women with HIV who were receiving antiretroviral therapy to prevent mother-to-child transmission. Those samples were shipped to Atlanta, where I joined CDC’s antiretroviral drug resistance team to study how HIV prevention programs might contribute to HIV drug resistance, and to generate evidence to guide local HIV prevention and treatment.

I remember that first day at the CDC vividly. Bright-eyed and filled with awe at finally standing inside the institution I had only read about from afar, I was welcomed by Dr. John Nkengasong, then director of GAP, and introduced to my supervising team. For 12 weeks, I trained with dedicated scientists who taught me how to run genotyping assays on the samples I had brought from Cameroon. That work became my first-ever peer-reviewed scientific publication, and more importantly, provided insights that helped inform HIV policy in my home country at a critical time.

Such was the power of the CDC. My story is just one drop in the vast ocean of the agency’s impact in training scientists and shaping global health policy. That is why this week’s unraveling feels so personal. The CDC shaped not only careers like mine but also the health of millions worldwide. From Ebola to Marburg, Mpox to Nipah, the CDC has always been there tracking disease, developing diagnostics, and supporting frontline response teams during some of the deadliest outbreaks. During the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic alone, nearly 1,900 CDC staff members were deployed to West Africa (primarily Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), in what became the largest emergency response in the agency’s history. Beyond such crises, the CDC has been equally critical in the long fight against older foes: poliomyelitis, malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV.

My career has since come full circle. Today I work in an institution across the street from the CDC. As an infectious diseases physician in the U.S., my reliance on the CDC and my respect for the colleagues who keep its mission alive has only deepened. Every clinician knows the CDC as the hotline you call when faced with a pathogen you’ve never seen before. Someone is always on the other end ready to guide isolation precautions, advise on treatment, or arrange shipment of samples for testing that only the CDC can perform.

I’ve experienced this firsthand many times. On one such occasion a patient under my care developed a brain abscess caused by a very rare mold. With CDC’s help, we identified the organism, chose the right therapy, and saved a life. That kind of quiet, behind-the-scenes expertise happens every day across health systems in America. Most people never notice, because the system works. Outbreaks are tracked, food borne infections contained, environmental hazards investigated, long before headlines appear.

Of course, the CDC has not been flawless. The Tuskegee syphilis study remains an indelible stain, and some aspects of the COVID-19 response have drawn justified criticism. Yet through its 80-year history, across multiple administrations, the consensus remained: the CDC was a force for the common good trusted to uphold science above politics or personal beliefs

Which brings us back to today. What becomes of the CDC now? One thing is certain, the agency as we once knew it is gone. RFK Jr. has signaled every intention of replacing its leadership with non-scientists or pseudo-scientists aligned with his anti-vaccine beliefs, with the aim of making it harder to access vaccines or to find information grounded in science on a wide range of health issues. Whether it is pushing unfounded claims about vaccines and autism, undermining the use of SSRIs for depression, or promoting a myriad of other falsehoods, the result is the same, the public can no longer confidently rely on the CDC as the trusted source for safeguarding their health. The consequences of this erosion are not abstract. Barely two weeks ago, the agency came under attack when a domestic terrorist fired 500 rounds into CDC buildings, blaming the institution for mental health challenges he falsely attributed to the COVID vaccine. A police officer was killed defending the public that day, and CDC employees now carry the trauma of an assault that will haunt them for years.

It is hard not to feel defeated in the face of such a coordinated attack. But the stakes are too high for public health professionals, scientists, and clinicians to simply throw up our hands. Public health is the branch of medicine that keeps patients out of hospitals; it is preventive medicine at its best. And in this moment, it needs its strongest defenders.

I remind myself that stars shine brightest in the darkest nights. Public health in America is in one of its darkest hours. Which means all of us in the medical community must become its brightest defenders. How? By stepping up in our communities. By recommending vaccines. By sharing accurate information about foodborne outbreaks or environmental hazards. By pointing people to credible sources of health information when the CDC falters. By advocating for a return to science in public health. And, most importantly, by standing in solidarity with our colleagues still at their duty posts within the CDC holding the fort, being the voice of reason, and doing their best to keep the ship from sinking. Call your representatives. Write to them. Remind them that these decisions carry life-or-death consequences for the people they serve.

We must treat this moment like the existential threat that it is. The CDC was more than just another federal agency it was a global beacon of science in service to humanity. Its legacy of impact deserves not only to be remembered, but to be defended, so that it can live on.

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