I've devoted my life to medicine and public health: 30 years as a pediatrician; 13 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including serving as acting director of the CDC; and eight years at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy dedicated to achieving health equity. Never in my career have I witnessed such a cruel and systematic dismantling of our nation’s public health system and workforce as the one underway this week. The devastation will be felt for years to come.
The Department of Health and Human Services should be making America great by ensuring that we are a nation in which health is not a privilege for some but rather a right for all. HHS administers health insurance programs including Medicare and Medicaid; funds groundbreaking scientific and medical research; monitors food and drug safety; and supports programs devoted to early childhood education, mental health, chronic disease prevention and the needs of people with disabilities.
The above is an excerpt of an op-ed originally published in U.S. News & World Report.
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