SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responds to disease trends and outbreaks. And recently, those include measles, ticks and contaminated cheddar cheese. Behind the scenes, much of the agency has been struggling to operate, with significant cuts to their staff and programs last year and low morale. But there was optimism this week as its premier fellowship program held a conference to celebrate 75 years of work. NPR's Pien Huang joins us. Pien, thanks so much for being with us.
PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: Hey, Scott. Thanks for having me.
SIMON: What was this meeting about?
HUANG: So this was a conference for the Epidemic Intelligence Service. These are the CDC's disease detectives. They get deployed around the world to investigate outbreaks. And at the conference, their fellows presented papers on measles detection, on botulism outbreaks and bat exposures. And this conference was significant because the program was on DOGE's chopping block last year, but it was spared. And Dr. Eric Pevzner is chief of the program.
ERIC PEVZNER: Would I like more money to hire more officers? Of course. If Congress wants to write me a larger check, I'll take it. But right now we're still doing everything that we've always done.
HUANG: That means fellows have gone recently to investigate outbreaks of invasive strep A in Hawaii, diphtheria in Micronesia and overdoses in Arizona.
SIMON: Certainly sounds like progress, but all is not well.
HUANG: No, it's not, Scott. I mean, this week, we found out that Interim Director Jay Bhattacharya is not allowing a routine scientific report on COVID vaccines to be published. This was something that was first reported by The Washington Post, and it was confirmed to NPR by the Department of Health and Human Services. And this was a report that found that COVID vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization by more than half over the past winter. Now, those results are according to a former CDC official who saw a final draft of the paper and spoke on the condition of anonymity because she fears retaliation from the administration. And Bhattacharya also saw this paper. And he raised concerns about how effectiveness was calculated, even though this is a method that the CDC has been using for years.
SIMON: And what's been the response?
HUANG: Well, this has public health supporters very concerned. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who's a Democrat from Connecticut - he sent Bhattacharya a letter saying that the administration, quote, "wants to hide evidence of the enormous benefits vaccines provide to the American people." He's also demanding emails and drafts of the study so that the Senate can investigate.
SIMON: And, of course, Pien, the new CDC director was recently nominated. Could she change this?
HUANG: That's right. So last week, Trump announced Dr. Erica Schwartz as his nominee for the new CDC director. And she was deputy surgeon general in his first administration, also the former chief medical officer for the Coast Guard. She gets a lot of respect from former colleagues. She's also publicly said that vaccines are an important part of public health, which might put her at odds with her potential new boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized some long-used vaccines. So this week, at a House Energy and Commerce hearing, Dr. Raul Ruiz, who's a congressman for California, asked Kennedy if he would let Schwartz direct the agency as she sees fit.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RAUL RUIZ: Will you commit on the record today to implement whatever vaccine guidance she issues without interference?
ROBERT F KENNEDY JR: I'm not going to make that kind of commitment.
RUIZ: Because you probably won't. You'll probably fire her.
HUANG: Ruiz was referencing the fact that Kennedy fired the last Senate-confirmed CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez, less than a month into the job. Monarez said it was because she refused Kennedy's demands that she pre-approved changes to the vaccine schedule, while Kennedy says it's because she told him that she's not trustworthy. Now, this is a rehashing of events that happened months ago, but it does raise important questions about how much independence and autonomy a new CDC leader would actually have.
SIMON: And, Pien, where does that leave the CDC for now?
HUANG: So Schwartz is now up for Senate confirmation, which is a process that could take a few months. Kennedy has said that he supports her and that she's getting applause from both Republicans and Democrats. But in the meantime, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya will continue leading both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health.
SIMON: NPR's Pien Huang. Thanks so much.
HUANG: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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