940 - A Brief Update: CDC in Crisis
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
About this episode:
Last week the CDC was rocked by the abrupt removal of director Susan Monarez and the resignation of four other senior officials, following months of budget and personnel cuts. In this episode: a quick update from former CDC Director Tom Frieden about these concerning developments, how they might impact vaccine access this fall, and what they mean for public health writ large.
Guest:
Dr. Tom Frieden is a physician and the president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health mission focused on stopping preventable deaths. He previously served as the director of the CDC and commissioner of the New York City Health Department.
Host:
Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management, a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department.
Show links and related content:
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We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American's Health—New York Times
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CDC denies help for lead poisoning in Milwaukee schools due to layoffs—CBS News
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Personnel Cuts at the CDC—Public Health On Call (April 2025)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, |
| 0:05.9 | where we bring evidence, experience, and perspective to make sense of today's leading health challenges. |
| 0:16.3 | If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an email to public health question at jh.h.u. |
| 0:23.8 | That's public health question at jh.u.edu for future podcast episodes. |
| 0:30.6 | It's Lindsay Smith Rogers. |
| 0:32.6 | In today's episode, a brief conversation about last week's events at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between Dr. Tom Frieden, the agency's former director, and Dr. Josh Sharfstein. Let's listen. |
| 0:45.8 | Dr. Tom Frieden, thank you so much for joining me this week on Public Health on Call. It's been quite a week for public health and particularly for the agency that you used to lead, |
| 0:55.1 | the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
| 0:57.5 | How are you doing? |
| 0:58.8 | Well, it's a sad week, Josh, to be honest. |
| 1:01.4 | It's not just that there's an unprecedented termination |
| 1:04.9 | of a CDC director that's never happened in 80 years. |
| 1:08.7 | It's not just that four of the main leadership of CDC resigned in protest. |
| 1:15.2 | I know all of those four people. |
| 1:16.8 | They're deeply dedicated to their work to protecting Americans. |
| 1:20.2 | They have no political agenda. |
| 1:21.9 | They only have the agenda of making America healthier. |
| 1:26.0 | But what's so concerning after cuts that have resulted in apparently more than 2,000 CDC staff losing their jobs, |
| 1:34.4 | the closure of half of the centers of the centers for disease control and prevention, |
| 1:41.5 | is that we really are in a dangerous time. We're seeing vaccine policy getting hijacked |
| 1:48.2 | by unscientific and dangerous and disproven views. We're seeing programs that are life-saving |
| 1:55.2 | to reduce tobacco use being dismantled. This is a dangerous time for health and public health in this country. |
... |
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