Newsroom | Defend Public Health

Healthday

700+ CDC Layoffs Reversed Amid Backlash Over Cuts to Disease Response Teams

Healthday covers the back and forth layoff notices at CDC and growing outcry about the process including quotes from Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves.

Connecticut mirror

Vaccines must remain available based on science, not politics

DPH member Gary Spinner discusses the strong evidence for vaccines and how state officials in Connecticut and neighboring states are banding together to support access and counter misinformation.

The Washington Post

Hundreds of CDC layoffs reversed, but biodefense preparedness staff hit

The post catalogs the CDC departments still gutted after some staff reinstatements, quoting DPH Coordinating Committee member Gregg Gonsalves asking, “Did they really not know they were firing the people tracking Ebola? Did they not care enough to find out who they were firing and what they did before sending termination letters?"

Firings of hundreds of CDC employees reportedly reversed

The Guardian covers the back and forth at the CDC with employees being abruptly terminated and then close to half rehired with quotes from Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves.

Independent UK

‘Damage is done’: Mass firings and dysfunction at CDC spark chaos for public health, critics warn

The Independent covers the chaos, confusion and fear among CDC staff following layoffs by the Trump Administration during the "Friday Night Massacre" including quotes from Defend Public Health's statement and Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves.

Mass Firings And Rehiring At CDC Create Chaos, Fear

Forbes covers the chaos of CDC employees being abruptly terminated and then some rehired by the Trump Administration with quotes from Coordinating Committee Member Gregg Gonsalves.

defend public health

Mass CDC Firings, Confusion Will Cost Lives; Congress Must Act

Mass firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, happening with no transparency and creating much confusion over the weekend, threaten the health of everyone in the U.S. and will lead to needless, preventable deaths, public health experts with Defend Public Health said today, urging Congress to act immediately.

defend public health

Mass CDC Firings, Confusion Will Cost Lives; Congress Must Act

Mass firings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, happening with no transparency and creating much confusion over the weekend, threaten the health of everyone in the U.S. and will lead to needless, preventable deaths, public health experts with Defend Public Health said today, urging Congress to act immediately.

Evidenced-based Care for All: Addressing Myths about Gender Affirming Health Care

This year the Department of Health and Human Services released a report titled “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices” which claimed to “summarize, synthesize, and critically evaluate the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents with distress related to their sex or to social expectations associated with their sex.” In reality, the HHS report spread dangerous and inaccurate information about gender dysphoria and gender affirming healthcare. This post, in partnership with The Coalition for Health Resilience, corrects the record

RFK Jr's Whopper of the Week

Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr. is Dead Wrong Babies Won't Get Hepatitis B

RFK Jr does not want the CDC to recommend newborns be vaccinated against the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). HBV infection early in life, especially as a baby, puts a person at a high risk of developing a chronic lifelong liver infection, which in a quarter of cases can lead to fatal liver failure or cancer. The hepatitis B vaccine for newborns is safe and effective; and it gives durable lifelong protection against a serious infection that children can encounter during birth, and throughout their lifetime in their families and communities.

article

Why Public Health Keeps Failing—and How to Fix It

DPH member Perry Halkitis reminds readers that important as science is, by itself science isn't enough, writing, "What would a more human public health look like? It would be one that recognizes that people act not only on what they know, but on what they feel. People must feel heard, not lectured, with interventions grounded in science and lived experience."

Trans Pride Flag

We Must Stand with Our Trans Neighbors

Most of us have some hobby or favorite activity we do to keep ourselves sane amid the pressures of daily living and the increasing political madness that is the USA. For me, it’s performing in community theater, and that’s where I met Perry (a pseudonym). At 17, Perry was the youngest transgender person I’d ever known. Today, he and every trans person in the U.S. is in danger.