Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The CDC is the federal agency responsible for protecting public health through disease prevention, health promotion, and emergency response. - Operating under acting director with significant leadership turnover

Jay Bhattacharya co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in October 2020, publicly opposing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's pandemic response policies. Five years later, he now controls both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health—the two largest federal public health agencies—making him the most powerful health official in America outside the cabinet.

Updated Feb 18

The CDC is the U.S. federal agency responsible for disease surveillance, outbreak response, and vaccination policy. - Tracking 910 cases across 24 states as of Feb 12

The United States declared measles eliminated in 2000—the culmination of decades of vaccination campaigns against the most contagious virus known to infect humans. On January 22, 2026, that achievement formally entered jeopardy when the country passed one year and two days of continuous transmission starting in West Texas. As of mid-February 2026, the crisis has accelerated with CDC confirming 910 cases across 24 states so far this year—90% outbreak-associated—while South Carolina's outbreak exploded to 950 cases by February 13, prompting a looming April PAHO review likely to revoke elimination status.

Updated Feb 15

The CDC is the lead US public-health agency, responsible for disease surveillance, outbreak response, and issuing national health guidance, including immunization schedules. Its director must sign off on ACIP recommendations for them to become official policy. - Holds final authority to adopt ACIP’s new recommendation into the national schedule

In December 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—reconstituted by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—voted 8–3 to end the universal recommendation for hepatitis B vaccination within 24 hours of all US newborns’ birth. On December 16, 2025, Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill formally adopted the recommendation, shifting to individual-based or shared clinical decision-making for infants of mothers testing negative for hepatitis B, with any first dose suggested no earlier than two months old; birth doses remain advised for infants of positive or unknown-status mothers.

Updated Feb 6

Federal agency tracking overdose deaths through the National Vital Statistics System, providing provisional monthly data used to measure crisis trends. - Primary source for overdose mortality data

For the first time since 2018, American overdose deaths are falling—and they've kept falling for more than two years. CDC provisional data through August 2025 shows approximately 72,800 overdose deaths in the preceding 12 months, a 21% decline from the previous period. Deaths peaked at 112,000 in 2022. The drop represents roughly 80 lives saved per day compared to the crisis peak.

Updated Jan 23

The federal agency tracking H5N1's evolution and human cases across the United States. - Monitoring outbreak, assessing pandemic risk as 'low' but rising

A bird virus jumped the species barrier. In March 2024, H5N1 avian influenza appeared in U.S. dairy cattle for the first time in history—an unexpected leap that's infected over 1,000 herds across 17 states and 70 humans. One person has died. When New York inspectors found the virus in seven live poultry markets in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn on February 7, 2025, Governor Kathy Hochul shuttered all 82 markets across the city and surrounding counties for emergency disinfection.

Updated Jan 7

The lead U.S. public health agency, responsible for disease surveillance, outbreak control, and official immunization schedules, now operating amid political intervention and internal turmoil. - Under pressured leadership changes and tasked with implementing revised vaccine guidance

In his second term, President Donald Trump has moved to fundamentally recast U.S. childhood vaccination policy, arguing that the country gives too many shots compared with its peers. On December 5, 2025, after a federal vaccine advisory panel voted 8–3 to end the longstanding recommendation that all newborns receive a hepatitis B shot at birth, Trump signed a presidential memorandum ordering the Health and Human Services secretary and the CDC director to review the entire childhood schedule and align it where possible with “best practices from peer, developed countries.”

Updated Dec 11, 2025