We need an independent public health agency
As the Trump administration seizes and buries the Centers for Disease Control's public health data and tries to isolate and undermine Dr. Anthony Fauci, we are now seeing a dangerous battle between political expediency and sound science.
But it is not altogether new. And there are institutional solutions in sight.
Other key public health institutions have already been eroded. In 2007 three former Surgeons General, having worked in Democratic and Republican administrations, testified before Congress that "the nation's doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas." Although one of us was unanimously confirmed to be the Surgeon General under the George W. Bush administration, when taking on big issues, like second-hand smoke or emergency contraception, the unanimity disappeared, and political pressures became extreme.
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christopher robertson health law policy public health regulation