By any fair measure, last week was brutal for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, following months of politically imposed setbacks. Indeed, it was on Wednesday afternoon when Team Trump ousted Susan Monarez as the CDC’s director — without cause and after less than a month on the job — sparking a series of resignations from many of the agency’s most respected and important leaders.
Soon after, it was common to see reports quoting CDC insiders referring to the agency in the past tense. The New York Times published a report with a headline and subhead that immediately generated some attention: “Will the C.D.C. Survive? Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s assault may have dealt lasting damage to the agency, experts fear, with harsh consequences for public health.”
A day later, former CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden appeared on MSNBC and told viewers, “I never thought I would see the day when you couldn’t trust what’s on the CDC website, but that day has come.”
That was soon followed by a New York Times op-ed co-authored by Frieden and several others who had held the same office. NBC News reported:
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership is ‘unlike anything our country has ever experienced,’ nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay Monday for The New York Times. … Their tenures date to the late 1970s and span Democratic and Republican administrations, including Trump’s first term.
The existence of the opinion piece is itself notable: There is no precedent for nine former CDC chiefs — including Anne Schuchat, who served as an acting director during Donald Trump’s first term — linking arms and alerting the public to a public health menace like this.
But just as notable, if not more so, is the written condemnation itself. Under a headline that read, “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health,” the nonet was unreserved in its criticisms of the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist who is currently serving as the nation’s health secretary. “Mr. Kennedy has fired thousands of federal health workers and severely weakened programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more,” they wrote. “Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he’s focused on unproven treatments while downplaying vaccines. He canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. And he championed federal legislation that will cause millions of people with health insurance through Medicaid to lose their coverage. Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top C.D.C. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire.” For his part, Kennedy responded with an opinion piece of his own, writing for The Wall Street Journal that he’s been directed to “restore that trust and return the CDC to its core mission.” Of course, if that is RFK Jr.’s principal goal, he’s failing spectacularly.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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