Mary Russell MD

Some food for thought. Claim #1: "America is home to 4.2% of the world's population but suffered 19% of COVID deaths. COMMENT: America has surveillance systems that detected these deaths, other parts of the world do not, so although lots of factors play in here, reporting bias is likely one of the principal drivers of this. Claim #2: COVID vaccines do not have high uptake so we should not have policies that allow access. COMMENT: Access shouldn't be dictated by popularity of an intervention. That's not how public health and medicine works. Claim #3: "Fewer than 1 in 10 employees are epidemiologists at CDC" COMMENT: This is AI searching for job series in the data system. I technically wouldn't be called an api in that search, and I am. Also epi is a part of a bigger matrix of implementers, clinicians and support staff. A CDC of 100% Epidemiologists is a UNIVERSITY not a operational health agency. Claim #4: CDC emphasized health equity. COMMENT: Yup. Public health is there to make sure people with the least ability to access services get them. That's health equity. Claim #5: The measles outbreak in Texas ended quickly. "Therapeutics were surged." The response not grounded in equity outcomes. COMMENT: There are no accepted therapeutics for measles. Vitamin A is supportive therapy with data in mainly malnourished children. The children affected by measles in TX were not malnourished. ALSO--the outbreak is over in Texas, but not over in the rest of the world. Policies that decrease coverage mean TX can happen again and more frequently. The outbreak in TX lasted months. Most outbreaks in well vaccinated areas don't last months. EQUITY considerations are a key to all outbreak responses--spoken like someone who has NEVER been involved in an outbreak response. Claim #6: CDC's Biothreat Radar will protect us COMMENT: This is an item in the President's 2026 budget . It doesn't exist yet. It hasn't been funded. Components do and pre-dated Sec Kennedy. That's like saying the alarm system we haven't installed yet will protect us. In the meantime countries have stopped sending the US important specimens to protect us because of the lack of demonstrated leadership to advance a strategy for a post -WHO withdrawal state. 75% reduction in flu specimens, no polio specimens since February, and 60+% reduction in COVID sequences. Less a Radar, more flying BLIND with faulty instruments. Claim #7: We need to build infrastructure COMMENT; States are laying off people because of cuts. Can't build infrastructure that you are tearing down. 2000 staff let go. Chronic disease and injury programs decimated.... Claim #8: We need to invest in workforce COMMENT: Agree with these words, but that not the action we are seeing. Workforce is being cut. Experts are being vilified. No financial or emotional investment in this is demonstrable in HHS actions. Claim # 9 We need to empower states COMMENT: States have had to lay people off and are growingly not getting what they need from CDC given the evolution of guidance into ideology. Ask some states what they think. States that can least afford not to be supported are going to be the ones most impacted. Claim #10: There have been steps to reduce COI in ACIP COMMENT: You betahca! That started before Sec Kennedy took over. Several scientists outside CDC have analyzed this data and have shown a decrease over decades. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam…