The CDC cuts announced Tuesday threaten America’s health, safety, and economy. Despite claims of efficiency, these cuts target proven programs that prevent disease and save lives — and as a result, Americans will be sicker and face increased health care costs. The government’s goal should not be to hit an arbitrary number of jobs eliminated, but to focus on the number of illnesses and premature deaths prevented.
The CDC has been America’s frontline defense, working 24/7 to protect Americans against health threats — whether naturally occurring or man-made, arising in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, and infectious or otherwise. These cuts restrict our ability to stop the leading killers of Americans. Cuts to CDC and other global work will cost lives, damage America’s reputation, and weaken our economy. It’s less expensive, safer, and more effective to stop health threats when and where they emerge than fight them in our country.
Here are just three examples of particular cuts — and the price Americans will pay for them.
Office on Smoking and Health: Among those told they are losing their jobs are every one of the scientists and public health experts at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health (OSH). These specialists have worked for decades to protect Americans, and particularly children, from tobacco — the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. This office has been instrumental in driving down smoking rates, protecting millions of children from addiction, and helping states run effective prevention programs. Some claim that OSH duplicates FDA’s tobacco program, but they misunderstand each agency’s role. FDA regulates tobacco products — how they are manufactured, marketed, and labeled. OSH focuses on people, tracking use, analyzing tobacco-related disease, and partnering with states and communities to implement prevention programs. These roles are not redundant, they are complementary — two halves of a system that reduces addiction and saves lives. That synergy has driven teen smoking from 36% to less than 4% and vaping from 28% to 8%. And this is just one of the many programs that address our leading causes of disease, injury, disability, and death that got pink slips today.
Environmental Health Laboratory: Also alarming is the dismantling of CDC’s Environmental Health Laboratory, a world-renowned service that conducts accurate biomonitoring for more than 400 chemicals, performing hundreds of thousands of tests every year to protect Americans from invisible but deadly environmental threats. This lab is crucial to the nation’s defense against hazards such as lead poisoning, contaminated drinking water, and toxic chemical exposures. It is the gold standard for detecting dangerous substances — informing everything from national drinking water standards to local responses to contamination. For generations, this laboratory has quietly but effectively prevented brain damage in children, deadly respiratory conditions, and cancers. This is the lab that sounded the alarm and led to control measures on mercury in fish, endocrine disrupters, PFAS (“forever chemicals”), BPA, and much more. Closing this lab will leave doctors, states, and all who care about reducing toxic exposures flying blind in our effort to reduce harmful substances in our food, water, and consumer products. And this is just one of the many units that track health trends and health threats to protect Americans that was shuttered today.
Public Health Communications Offices: And then there are CDC’s public health communications offices, which appear to have been slated for elimination. In an era of declining trust and rampant misinformation, eliminating those responsible for helping CDC scientists speak directly to the American people is not the answer. These teams ensure that the nation’s leading public health experts can explain — clearly, credibly, and consistently — how to stay safe during outbreaks, prevent disease, and respond to emergencies. Americans deserve the unvarnished truth from their public health agencies. Without these specialists, misinformation will fill the vacuum, undermining everyday health and response to crises ranging from infectious disease outbreaks to natural disasters.
Public health is often invisible — until it fails. Without these programs, there will be more outbreaks, more tobacco-related illnesses, and more Americans dying unnecessarily. The United States already spends more on health care than any other nation yet suffers among the highest rates of preventable deaths compared with other wealthy countries. Slashing programs that work upstream — preventing costly and deadly diseases before they happen — will make this worse. And this is not just about lives lost; it is about dollars wasted. Every preventable hospitalization, every untreated chronic condition, every outbreak that could have been stopped early costs far more than the investments needed to prevent them.
Americans are right to demand efficiency, accountability, and responsiveness from our government. But it is inefficient to dismantle programs that save lives and dollars. True efficiency is not about reducing headcounts; it is about improving health outcomes and reducing long-term costs. It means taking a thoughtful, fact-based look at programs to ensure they deliver results. It means strengthening those that work and fixing those that can do better.
Public health is not a luxury. It is essential infrastructure — as vital as roads, bridges, and water systems — for the health, economy, and security of every American. If the administration doesn’t reverse today’s actions, we will pay more, suffer more, and achieve less.
Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., is president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, a global health organization. He is former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Health Department.