{"id":10216,"date":"2025-09-03T16:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=10216"},"modified":"2025-09-03T16:32:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T21:32:18","slug":"i-resigned-from-the-cdc-here-are-three-questions-for-rfk-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/09\/03\/i-resigned-from-the-cdc-here-are-three-questions-for-rfk-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"I resigned from the CDC. Here are three questions for RFK Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2025\/09\/03\/robert-kennedy-cdc-health-policy\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">Washington Post<\/a> OPINION<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve seen the secretary\u2019s effect on public health policy firsthand. <em>Debra Houry is an emergency physician and was the chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until last week.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, I and two colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned after the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/health\/2025\/08\/27\/susan-monarez-cdc-director-ousted\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"White House\u2019s firing, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">White House\u2019s firing<\/a>\u00a0of CDC Director Susan Monarez. In my role as the CDC\u2019s chief medical officer as well as the agency\u2019s lead last winter for the transition to the Trump administration, I have had a firsthand view of how public health policy has been affected by the arrival of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services. On Thursday, the Senate Finance Committee\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/08\/28\/robert-kennedy-senate-hearing-cdc-00533906\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"will hear testimony, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">will hear testimony<\/a>\u00a0from Kennedy on public health, vaccines and government accountability. The hearing is almost certain to stir controversy. But beyond the spectacle, his answers to three simple questions would tell Americans a great deal about where the country is heading. Will America be healthier?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Right now,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/pcd\/issues\/2025\/24_0539.htm\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"3 in 4 Americans, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3 in 4 Americans<\/a>&nbsp;live with at least one chronic condition, contributing to 90 percent of the nation\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/chronic-disease\/data-research\/facts-stats\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\".9 trillion, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">.9 trillion<\/a>&nbsp;in health care costs for people with chronic and mental health conditions. The CDC had been investing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/funding\/funding-profiles\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\" million to  million, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> million to  million<\/a>&nbsp;per state annually to prevent and control chronic disease.<\/p>\n<div style=\"display: none;\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" title=\"eUTHDsNYYecsm\">eUTHDsNYYecsm<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington Post OPINION I\u2019ve seen the secretary\u2019s effect on public health policy firsthand. Debra Houry is an emergency physician and was the chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until last week. Last week, I and two colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10217,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10216\/revisions\/10217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}