As of Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Health Alert Network, tasked with sending critical public health information on disease outbreaks and prevention tips to health professionals and the public, hadn’t published an alert since March 18. That March alert focused on the risk of dengue infection, particularly in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
There’s been no shortage of news the public should have been informed about since then, including outbreaks of salmonella and listeria this month, but the CDC has grown noticeably silent.
There’s been no shortage of news the public should have been informed about since then.
And now we’ve reached Memorial Day, when families traditionally enjoy foods at picnics and barbecues. Imagine going to such a cookout and not knowing if it’s been determined that the brand of meat on the table is free of potentially deadly bacteria.
The CDC’s reluctance to provide transparent information about current disease outbreaks leaves Americans vulnerable. Front-line health care workers get less information to share with their patients on how to mitigate the spread of outbreaks, and the general public doesn’t receive timely warnings on what diseases to look out for or what foods or produce to avoid if there’s an active foodborne illness spreading.
As a physician and public health expert, I rely regularly on CDC newsletters to help inform my articles and videos in educating the public on the most pressing health issues. Without these newsletters and health alerts, finding credible sources on important health updates has become more difficult.
When the public lacks information on disease outbreaks, people can’t take precautions to protect themselves or others. The absence of transparent communication breeds confusion and mistrust.
“Public health functions best when its experts are allowed to communicate the work that they do in real time, and that’s not happening,” Kevin Griffis, the director of communications at the CDC until March, told NPR. “That could put people’s lives at risk.”
Speaking of the general absence of information coming from the CDC, Dr. Jodie Guest, a professor and senior vice chair of the department of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, told NPR, “The whole goal is to say, this is what we know. And here are the best recommendations from experts in the field.”
Americans are already paying the price for the lack of effective communication during disease outbreaks.
Americans are already paying the price for the lack of effective communication during disease outbreaks. Look no further than the current measles outbreak in Texas, where over 700 people have been infected, including two unvaccinated children who have died. Some infected children with measles were hospitalized with vitamin A toxicity after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrongly touted vitamin A as a treatment for measles.
The clamps on health communication represents a public health crisis in the making. People have died and will continue to die if evidence-based health recommendations are not more transparent to the American public. The two measles deaths in Texas could have been entirely prevented with vaccination. We must demand more from the CDC and hold the agency accountable for providing lifesaving health information that has been a part of its DNA for decades. The next foodborne illness will not wait for a press release or federal funding. In his first address to HHS workers, Kennedy promised “radical transparency” with respect to health initiatives to help restore public trust in health. Instead, flu vaccination campaigns have been halted, medical journals are receiving threatening letters from the Justice Department alleging bias and conflict of interest issues, and important health information on disease outbreaks is not being communicated broadly through the avenues of the CDC. The American public deserves better from the CDC. Public health is an invisible infrastructure that supports everything from our schools to our economy and daily living. When it’s dismantled, everything falls apart. Our ability to stay healthy depends in large part on receiving clear and effective communication. If the CDC stays silent, then the American people will be in the dark on trying to mitigate the spread of deadly disease outbreaks. Another disease outbreak is always around the corner. And the CDC needs to recommit to its mission and make sure the American public will be informed about it.
Dr. Omer Awan
Dr. Omer Awan M.D., MPH, CIIP, is a practicing radiologist physician in Baltimore, Maryland, who writes about the most pressing issues in healthcare and public health. 
