The Metro: Why we’re getting worse at catching outbreaks
Michigan’s cyclospora outbreak is the visible symptom. Dr. Céline Gounder joins The Metro to explain the deeper problem: a public health system that’s harder to trust, and slower to respond, than it used to be.
Close-up view of a scientist examining a specimen under a microscope in a laboratory.
If you’ve spent a bad week this summer wondering what you ate, you’re not alone.
Michigan seems to be at the epicenter of a fast-growing cyclospora outbreak. The state is reporting far more cases than any other — over 9,000 Michiganders have gotten sick from the parasite.
That is the story in front of us. Behind it is a harder one.
A year ago, about three-quarters of Americans said they trusted the CDC’s health advice. Today, it is half.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, fired the entire committee that advises the CDC on vaccines and replaced it with his own picks. A federal court blocked those changes, though the administration is appealing.
Meanwhile, many pediatricians did something they had never done. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued its own vaccine schedule rather than following the government’s.
So when health officials tell you how to keep your family safe from a parasite in the lettuce, there is a question underneath it now: Do you still believe them?
Dr. Céline Gounder is an infectious disease specialist, epidemiologist, and public health correspondent for CBS News and KFF Health News. She hosts the podcasts Epidemic and American Diagnosis.
Gounder worked on the ground during the Ebola epidemic in Guinea and spent years studying tuberculosis and HIV across southern Africa. She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to discuss the erosion of America’s public health apparatus and how it’s affecting the cyclospora outbreak and public health more broadly.
Hear the full conversation using the media player above.
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