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Perry N. Halkitis, PhD, MS, MPH, is the Dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health. A leading public health psychologist, researcher, and advocate, Halkitis has been a vocal critic of health disparities and the politicization of public health, emphasizing evidence-based interventions to address infectious diseases. His forthcoming book, Humanizing Public Health: How Disease- centered Approaches Have Failed Us, to be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2026 explores the historical and contemporary challenges of public health through a socio-political lens.

DPH member Aimee Pugh Bernard and colleagues lay out the potentially disastrous consequences of the administration's decision to shut down the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) Network, "our early warning system" for new disease threats.

DPH member Jeoffry B. Gordon discusses how RFK Jr's firing of CDC's vaccine advisory panel and other policy decisions could undermine public confidence in vaccinations and the need to support ongoing vaccinations to maintain public health.

In an abrupt move this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr fired all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with new members saying it will restore public trust in the shots. Dr. Perry Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health, shares more.

DPH member Miranda Yaver, a professor of health policy and management, calls out the hypocrisy of the Medicaid cuts in the so-called "Big Beautiful Bill," as the former party of states' rights tries to force states to make draconian cuts that will do profound harm.

DPH member Aimee Pugh Bernard and colleagues dissect HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s latest volley of vaccine misinformation, delivered via X, in which he tried to justify his firing of CDC vaccine advisors.

DPH member Miranda Yaver explores the potentially devastating impact of Medicaid cuts on behavioral health services in Republican leaning states.

DPH coordinating committee member Gregg Gonsalves reports on NIH staffers letter to Director Jay Bhattacharya calling out the damage his leadership and the Trump administration have done to health research.

DPH member Aimee Pugh Bernard and colleagues take a hard look at the recent change in COVID vaccine recommendations, arguing HHS's justification for the change "misrepresents and falsely cites the evidence, uses outdated data, and risks eroding public trust and the foundation of evidence-based public health."

In this column, syndicated nationally by The Progressive and appearing in papers nationwide, from Newsday in New York to the Kansas City Star, DPH members Donna Gaffney and Teri Mills lay out HHS Secretary Kennedy's history of promoting "dangerous misinformation about fluoride" and the harm he will cause if he succeeds in banning it from drinking water.

DPH Communications Committee co-chair Bruce Mirken on how too much of the mass media coverage of RFK Jr. "leaves Americans without the information they need to understand how genuinely bonkers the direction of current U.S. public health policy has become under Kennedy."