The United States is facing a number of major disease outbreaks, from foodborne cyclosporiasis to vaccine-preventable measles. We speak to the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Debra Houry. She resigned from her post one year ago in protest over political interference at the agency and the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has overseen the slashing of billions of dollars in public health funding during the second Trump administration.
“The U.S. is really at a tipping point, when you look at measles, whooping cough, all these vaccine-preventable diseases, as well, and the secretary is responsible for this,” says Houry. “Public health matters. When it works, you often don’t know, because you’re saving lives. But when you take it away, we see those consequences today.”
