"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has historically been the pinnacle of U.S. public health. The agency has been a leading voice for evidence-backed health guidance and a sentinel for deadly disease outbreaks for decades. But over the past year, the CDC's authority has crumbled as the agency has replaced subject matter experts with vaccine deniers and discarded evidence in favor of ideology."
"An audit published last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that dozens of public CDC databases have gone dark. Thirty-eight routinely updated datasets, most related to vaccines, have been inexplicably paused since at least the spring of 2025. We tend to assume that federal government data is solid. It's reliable; it's consistent, says study co-author Janet Freilich, a Boston University law professor, who has been studying changes in government data in recent years. At least on consistency, we weren't seeing that here."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has historically been the pinnacle of U.S. public health and a leading voice for evidence-backed guidance and outbreak surveillance. Over the past year the agency's authority has crumbled as subject matter experts were replaced with vaccine deniers and evidence was discarded in favor of ideology. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Trump administration stripped the CDC of funding, programs, staff, and prominent leaders. Internal chaos has dramatically interrupted operations. An audit in the Annals of Internal Medicine found 38 routinely updated CDC datasets, mostly vaccine-related, paused since spring 2025. State and independent organizations are forming regional health alliances and governors are coordinating to preserve vaccine guidance and public health communication.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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