CDC cuts leave US less prepared for disease outbreaks, former officials warn

Demonstrators outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, on 4 December 2025. Photograph: Megan Varner/Bloomberg via Getty Images

A series of health challenges – hantavirus, screwworm, Ebola, cyclospora, measles, whooping cough, bird flu – are exposing the widening gaps in America’s ability to prevent, identify and halt infectious disease outbreaks.

The rapid dismantling of the US public health system at all levels means the US is in worse shape than it was before the Covid pandemic, former top CDC officials say.