The CommonHealth

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, NYT, delves into what direction HHS Secretary Kennedy is taking US policy. He operates along two divergent strands – vaccines and the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) agenda. “Kennedy is by nature a skeptic” and has a “love of nature, and all things holistic.” He has expanded the power of the office, specifically with regard to Covid vaccines, with the CDC leaderless. The newly released MAHA commission report on chronic disease among children, “the sickest generation in American history,” spotlights ultra-processed food—the strongest and most bipartisan argument contained in the report. While the report is restrained on childhood vaccines and pesticides, it is likely to lead to more work on mental health disorders among children.  Sheryl ventured to Texas recently to visit with the founders of Texans for Vaccine Choice, “mad moms in minivans” committed to medical freedom with longstanding links to RFK Jr. For a decade they have scored wins in the Texas legislature. “Defiant” and “entitled,” the Secretary asserts that Americans should not ask any medical advice from him, a deliberate deflection. Dr. Casey Means, nominated to be US Surgeon-General, has already demonstrated she is a strong communicator. It would not be surprising if Kennedy runs in 2028 for the Presidency. 

For Helen Branswell, the celebrated Stat News reporter, the SARS outbreak of 2003, while she was based in Toronto, was a thunderclap moment. Jump forward 22 years: Secretary Kennedy on May 28, posted a one-minute video on X announcing he is not recommending Covid vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women -- an “unprecedented” unilateral decision without any normal process. “It came out of the mind of the individuals who wrote it.” What does this bold step signal?  The public is voting with its feet in the low uptake of Covid vaccines by the older and more vulnerable population. Yet it is not clear why the government has to take active measures to make vaccines less available to healthy individuals. CDC should play a lead role in deliberations but is cut out. The CDC director position is vacant, and no acting director is in place.  Will vaccine producers need to run new field trials for updated boosters? “They (the Trump administration) have been quite unclear in what they are asking for.”127 days into the second Trump administration, how to characterize things?  “I would characterize it as exhausting.”  “The change has been massive, and it is not over.”  What gives you hope? “That is a very hard question.” 

In this episode, Dr. Kate O’Brien, Director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines, and Biologicals at the World Health Organization (WHO) shares her perspective on the state of global immunization programs halfway through Immunization Agenda 2030; the challenges associated with current measles outbreaks in the United States and around the world; why people who have never seen children die from preventable diseases may seem complacent about vaccines; steps that can be taken to strengthen vaccine confidence while ensuring equitable access to immunization programs; and what’s at risk as the United States and other funders cut support for biomedical research and development at a moment when there are numerous promising products to prevent infectious diseases in the research and development pipeline.

“I studied hard. Hated the lab, loved the field.”  Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, Acting Director, WHO Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management, reveals her early, personal passions as a student of epidemiology. After a stint as a young PhD investigator in Cambodia, she was “desperate to work at WHO. I wanted a seat at the table.” As the technical lead at WHO during the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020, she spoke at hundreds of press conferences, duly tracked by her mother. The value proposition for WHO? To help governments prepare for emerging biothreats, detect and rapidly share information on outbreaks, and convene the world’s experts to produce guidance. “In my wildest dreams, I did not expect the politicization of Covid throughout the past five years.” WHO’s recent dramatic restructuring will better focus WHO on its core functions, as its two-year budget drops from $6.8 billion to $4.2 billion. As the United States withdrew in January from WHO, it stopped its funding and ceased technical and scientific exchanges. “Since January, U.S. government officials have been instructed not to talk to us.” That is unprecedented and dangerous: “If American expertise is not at the table, there is a gap.” It puts Americans at-risk. Her conclusion: “Restore that link immediately.” 

Dr. Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg, former FDA Commissioner, describes the profound impact the HIV epidemic has had on her personally and in terms of her career choices. She discovered in her six years as FDA Commissioner how vitally important FDA is to the safety and protection of Americans, at home and abroad. FDA has oversight responsibility for fully 20% of the American economy. She is  deeply worried at the level of destruction visited upon FDA recently, but cautions that it is critical to wait until the dust has settled. “Corporate capture” of FDA has been an issue for a long time, tied to user fees and industry participation on advisory panels. What is most important is to engage the right expertise and experience, with effective guardrails. The Trump administration has instructed FDA to expand overseas unannounced inspections, expedite the creation of a centralized AI platform across all FDA units, and lower the barriers to the pharmaceutical industry building new facilities on US soil. In each of these ambitious goals, a step-by-step approach is needed, along with attention to the “disconnect” between big, new goals versus uncertain, or declining FDA capabilities in staff, financing, and dedicated offices. She is very concerned at the worsening threat to vaccines and the need somehow to earn back public trust. The same is true for the U.S. “biomedical research and innovation enterprise”—the envy of the world—that has been struck by a “wrecking ball.”

Dr. Jennifer Kates, SVP and Director, Global Health and HIV Policy Program, KFF, provides a tour d’horizon of how global health and health security look at day #98 of the Trump revolution. “The DOGE factor was not on my bingo card,” as it became the battering ram decimating institutions, programs, budgets and staff, far beyond what was environed in Project 2025. It went against what many Republicans favor—just look at the recent dismantling of the Millennium Challenge Corporation. The desire to vanquish likely emanates from the White House OMB. As the budget process, including recissions, advances, the power dynamic may shift to Congress. It may become possible to think about new ways to do foreign assistance. There will be no restoration of the status quo ante. It requires fresh thinking and clear principles, and most importantly, new forms of leadership. 

In the twelfth episode of The CommonHealth Live! which falls during World Immunization Week, Katherine E. Bliss talks with Dr. Adam Ratner, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases and author of Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children's Health, and Dr. Ephrem T. Lemango, Associate Director of Immunization at UNICEF, about measles outbreaks in the United States and abroad; how to bolster measles vaccination coverage in a period of reduced financing for domestic and global programs; and why routine immunization programs are critical to global health security.

In the eleventh episode of The CommonHealth Live! Katherine E. Bliss talks with the Republic of Indonesia’s Minister of Health, H.E. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, about Indonesia’s experience expanding routine immunization coverage and prioritizing attention to non-communicable diseases, as well as how public-private sector collaboration can help ensure sustainable access to health services, including primary health care.

Dr. Stephanie Psaki—a newly minted CSIS Senior Adviser—shares the story of her personal evolution as a scholar, NGO policy data expert, senior political appointee at the HHS Office of Global Affairs and the White House National Security Council, and now faculty at Brown University School of Public Health. She reflects on the lessons, good and bad, from her 900 days at the White House, and what the first 100 days of the Trump second term reveal, in particular how science has become politicized. We are seeing a “a huge departure from the role the United States has played for decades.” While the Mpox outbreak in both Europe and the United States (2022-2023) had a promising outcome, the ongoing outbreak in central Africa (which began in 2023) leave many uncomfortable, unanswered questions of why leadership, coordination, finance and speed remain so problematic. The surprise, recent completion of the Pandemic Treaty is encouraging, up to a point. As we turn inevitably to chart a vision for the future, we will have to think in fundamentally different ways about the different world we now occupy. 

Major General Paul Friedrichs (ret.), the inaugural director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), is now a Senior Adviser at CSIS. In this conversation, Paul reviews the multiple changes in health security now unfolding in the first 100 days of the second Trump term. In biodefense, there is a wide-ranging degradation across different departments and agencies. The assault on the scientific research enterprise is leading to a retrenchment of innovation and US leadership in generating new technologies. That will lower our ability to subdue deliberate biological threats, rising accidental lab leaks, and the continued proliferation of naturally occurring biothreats. Resilience in America’s health infrastructure remains an open question, with shortages of 20,000-30,000 physicians and 300,000 nurses. Where does this all leave us? “It is as if you took all the health security plans of the past administration and asked: what can we do to make this country more vulnerable?” And what are we likely to see as early manifestations? Shortages of pharmaceuticals, higher prices, higher external dependence, especially upon China. Give a listen to hear more, including on the state of the two dangerous outbreaks in America—measles and avian flu (H5N1).