If America has entered the “golden age” as President Trump is fond of saying, public health officials across the nation are still waiting patiently for it to start.
That’s because his administration has shown little respect for the importance of science in guiding health policy, as he destroys the federal government’s decades-long role in leading the charge to keep Americans safe.
Another salvo came last month, when the White House fired U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Susan Monarez for refusing to comply with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccine policy. She had been on the job for less than a month. Since then, confusing guidance on vaccines has become the norm.
The intended message it sent to the rest of Trump’s appointed U.S. health officials was clear: Politics are more important than science.
A Trump spokesperson said Monarez was “not aligned with the president’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.” Dr. Monarez’s lawyers responded succinctly: “[This] is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts and the dangerous politicization of science.”
The CDC was formed nearly 80 years ago and quickly became a beacon for leadership on public health issues. But in just a few months, the Trump administration has actively undermined the agency’s credibility by firing its leader, slashing its workforce, terminating its vaccine advisory committee, restricting critical research and removing vital consumer health information from public view.
The federal government shutdown has only made matters worse. The Trump administration laid off over 1,000 CDC employees due to the shutdown last week, and more than 700 were laid off in error, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. They are reportedly working to correct the improper layoffs.
States have taken it upon themselves to fill the void. In September, a group of West Coast states formed an alliance to serve as a de facto satellite U.S. health agency. California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii have banded together to “ensure public health recommendations are guided by safety, efficacy, transparency, access, and trust.”
They have taken the view that, if the federal government can’t lead by following the science, then we’ll do it on our own. On the East Coast, New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Massachusetts, among other states, are doing the same.
There are countless examples of irrefutable scientific certainties that exist all around us. Gravity causes objects to fall. The Earth orbits the sun. Matter is comprised of atoms. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen.
Another is that germs spread disease, and that the most effective weapons we have to combat potentially deadly transmission of outbreaks in schools and cities all across the country are vaccines.
Clear and concise messaging from our elected and appointed leaders about the safety of these therapies is needed to allay unnecessary public fear. But experts who truly care about the health of our nation are being overrun by those with political aspirations who see vaccines as a strawman to promote personal freedom, as well as their own careers.
Science isn’t always easy to understand. It often requires public health experts to step forward and explain it in simple terms, which we don’t always do very well. COVID showed that public health professionals need to be better at explaining what we know and what is new to us.
But science also requires that people pay attention, so that they can make important health decisions for themselves that are rooted in fact and best practices.
And that can be difficult to achieve when those in positions of political power make health recommendations that appeal to our individual rights yet fly in the face of well-established research and decades of real-world efficacy.
The evidence undisputedly shows vaccines have safely prevented the spread of deadly communicable diseases that have killed millions of people. Yet last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced his administration would end all vaccine mandates, including those once required for children to return to school.
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in their body?” said Florida State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo in announcing the move.
Outbreaks of measles, chickenpox, diphtheria and pertussis are now a foregone conclusion in Florida due to the state’s action. And the broader effect of this ill-informed policy on vaccinated, immunocompromised children and adults, who will now be at greater risk of exposure and harm, is deeply troubling.
We have already seen this happen in Texas, where a measles epidemic this year killed two children and sent nearly 100 people to the hospital. In response, Kennedy, the highest health official in the nation, suggested that cod liver oil could be used as a viable remedy to prevent infection.
Vaccines have stopped diseases like polio and smallpox from ravaging our country. They worked because Americans took them. And Americans took them because they listened to credible health experts and followed the science.
Lyndon Haviland, DrPH, MPH, is a distinguished scholar at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy.
