Worries about the CDC reliability hover over flu season : NPR

Key Points:

• The U.S. is experiencing the worst measles resurgence in decades, alongside declining vaccination rates and recurring outbreaks of flu, COVID-19, and RSV, raising concerns about the reliability of CDC health information.
• Former CDC official Dr. Demetre Daskalakis and other public health experts criticize the CDC's handling of two Pennsylvania measles-related deaths, especially after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly questioned the deaths and the CDC removed them from its website.
• Experts warn that disputes between federal and state health authorities threaten critical partnerships essential for public health, with a breakdown in coordination and trust that has worsened since the Trump administration.
• There are growing fears that political pressures may lead the CDC to suppress or question infectious disease data, undermining public trust and complicating efforts to address outbreaks and declining immunization rates.
• Doubts are emerging about the effectiveness of new CDC director Dr. Erica Schwartz, with critics saying the agency appears compromised and insufficiently focused on outbreak response and vaccination promotion amid the current public health challenges.