Loss of CDC leadership will harm Iowans

Public health is in a state of crisis. That statement/truth should alarm Iowans. Many misunderstand public health as “health care for poor people.” So, if you don’t need Medicaid yourself or get your care at a community clinic, it does not affect you. This could not be farther from the truth.

Safe food and drinking water, disaster and emergency response, rabies testing, teen pregnancy prevention programs, vaccines and infectious disease response, smoking cessation efforts, cancer research and prevention - this and much more is public health.

Public health delivers at the local level. The funding, however, is predominantly through federal grants awarded to Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, local public health departments, and community serving organizations. Per the USDHHS Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS), in Fiscal Year 2025 Iowa’s public health agencies and partners were collectively awarded $35,969,074 from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) to carry out the important work that works to keep Iowa communities healthy and thriving. A significant amount of this funding is now in limbo due to freezes, cancellations, pullbacks, and subsequent legal challenges. This means local communities will go without or face serious limits on these relied upon services.

The CDC sits within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and reports to USDHHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has vowed to restore trust in America’s public health system. Rather, the dismissal of CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez this past Wednesday and the subsequent resignation of three top CDC executives (staff who had served through multiple administrations), has sown outrage and claims of political vendettas.

Dr. Monarez’s legal counsel released a statement saying that “When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,” and that she’s being targeted as a result.

This assertion can be debated, but if there is any degree of truth, our once revered scientific institutions are at risk of becoming purveyors of misinformation, subject to the swings of elections and ideologies of political appointees. This is a high risk and slippery slope regardless of the political party in power.

Dismantling the CDC directly threatens the health of all people in Iowa. At a time when Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the country, the fourth highest rate of excessive drinking, among the highest state obesity rates, and 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness, we can’t afford to lose public health trust or our capacity to respond and serve.

Public health at its core is about science, is nonpartisan, and focuses on programs and policies that make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyday Iowans. Retribution and ousting of public health scientists who adhere to the principles of scientific integrity, data-driven decision-making, and prioritizing the public interest will destroy trust in the public health systems that Iowans rely on.

We, as Iowans, need to stand united and be strong in demanding our elected officials do all that is necessary to ensure that the CDC remains nonpartisan and science based. We need a public health system engaged in policy, not politics. For ourselves, for our families, and for our communities.

Lina Tucker Reinders is executive director of the Iowa Public Health Association.