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Health Care

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The Big Story

CDC upheaval pushes public health into ‘uncharted waters’

In less than a week, the public health sector has been plunged into chaos as leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leave the agency amid heightened political tensions with the Trump administration.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Wednesday that Susan Monarez would no longer serve as CDC director. This was followed by the resignations of four top leaders at the agency:

Demetre C. Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases
Daniel Jernigan, director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID)
Debra Houry, CDC Chief Medical Officer
Jennifer Layden, director for the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology

In an all-hands meeting following the resignations, the office that Jernigan had led signaled deep uncertainty about the future.

“These are uncharted waters,” said a senior CDC official during a Thursday all-hands meeting of NCEZID. “But we will do our best to navigate, to move forward, to do the work that we think needs to be done in the way that it needs to be done.”

Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at the O’Neill Institute at the Georgetown University Law Center and director of the WHO Center on Global Health Law, said the shakeup has left the agency “weakened, gutted, and utterly dispirited.”

These developments follow a fatal shooting and mass layoffs at the agency, all of which in the past month.

For Democrats on Capitol Hill, the chaos is enough to call for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s termination.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday that keeping Kennedy in the position would “make many more people sick and cause more deaths.”

“By keeping Robert Kennedy in charge of HHS, Trump is doubling down on his own failure. President Trump must admit his mistake and remove Kennedy now,” said Schumer.

Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) said, “President Trump must fire Robert F. Kennedy Jr. before he further endangers millions of American children, mothers, and families.”

“If Trump does not remove Kennedy before this kook fully unleashes his crackpot conspiracy theories on America’s vaccination efforts, Trump will bear the responsibility for the unnecessary and preventable illnesses and deaths that result.”

Programming note: The Hill’s healthcare newsletter will not publish on Labor Day. See you Tuesday!

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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Essential Reads

How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond:

Who is Jim O’Neill, Trump’s new CDC director

The White House quickly named a new leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pushed out Director Susan Monarez this week. Jim O’Neill, a senior Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) official with deep ties to President Trump donor Peter Thiel, will take over the agency amid an exodus of its leadership and panic across the public …

Full Story

CVS withholding COVID-19 vaccines in 15 states and DC, citing ‘regulatory environment’

Related video: Changes Atop the CDC CVS Health does not currently plan to offer the updated annual vaccine COVID-19 vaccine in more than a dozen states, citing the current “regulatory environment” after the updated shots receiving approval for high risk groups this week. A spokesperson for CVS said in a statement that “based on the current regulatory environment,” the pharmacy chain will not offer COVID-19 …

Full Story

Texas lawmakers advance abortion pill restrictions

The Texas House has advanced a bill that would allow private citizens to sue prescribers, makers and distributors of abortion pills inside and outside the state. A revised version of Texas’s H.B. 7 passed the state Legislature’s lower chamber in an 82-48 vote Thursday night during Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) second special session. It is now on its way to the state Senate. Under the bill, almost anyone can sue a distributor …

Full Story

In Other News

Branch out with a different read:

NYC Legionnaires’ outbreak linked to two city-run buildings, including Harlem Hospital

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City hospital and another city-run building were sources for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Harlem that killed seven people and sickened dozens of others, health officials announced Friday. The New York City Health Department said bacteria from cooling towers atop Harlem Hospital and a nearby construction site where the city’s public health lab is located matched samples from some of …

Full Story

Around the Nation

Local and state headlines on health care:

New York City health department declares Harlem Legionnaires’ outbreak officially over (ABC 7)
Two dead and 22 more hospitalized in Louisiana after contracting flesh-eating bacteria (USA Today)
Kentucky lawmakers appear skeptical of state health insurance exchange (Louisville Public Media)

What We’re Reading

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

Inside the CDC, a growing sense of despair (The New York Times)
CDC warns of huge COVID spike amid internal turmoil (Axios)
RFK Jr. Links SSRIs and mass shootings. What does science say? (The Washington Post)