Axios New doctors are increasingly moving away from specializing in infectious diseases as the prevalence of vaccine-preventable illnesses like measles and whooping cough ticks up.
Why it matters: The Trump administration’s cuts to public health funding and its overhaul of federal vaccine policy may be putting even more of a damper on a field that took the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- It doesn’t help that the field has historically paid less than other specialties.
Interest from medical residents “was markedly worse” this year, said Wendy Armstrong, president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
- “I think that reflects the environment that we are in right now where our specialty has frankly been under attack.”
By the numbers: 319 physicians applied for infectious disease fellowships that will begin later this year, compared with 404 at the specialty’s recent post-pandemic peak in 2021, according to data from the National Residency Matching Program.
Doctors filled only about 61% infectious disease fellowship positions offered this year, compared with 88% of positions five years ago.