Do we need another crisis to revive the CDC?
Key Takeaways
Industry Insights:
The articles in [the MMWR] are timely. They're well-written, they are well-edited. They don't really need another level of political clearance, to be perfectly honest.” –Arthur Reingold, MD
“Intervention in the scientific process and the communication of science information is really unprecedented.” –Timothy Holtz, MD
Find more of your peers' perspectives and insights below.
For the first time in more than 60 years, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) has not been released, following a freeze on public communications from the agency under orders from the Trump administration.[]
Last Thursday marked the first time since it began that the MMWR was not published, and it is not yet clear when the report will again be released.
“It's an incredibly important means of communication to notify state and local health departments, healthcare providers, policy makers, academics, all manner of people, [and] government agencies about urgently important problems—many of them infectious disease, but even non-infectious disease. So, [the] notion that that would be in limbo or held hostage to political points of view is very distressing,” Arthur Reingold, an epidemiology professor at UC Berkeley who spent 8 years working with the CDC, tells MDLinx.
The voice of the CDC
The CDC’s MMWR home page remains live at the time of writing, but the last report was released on January 16, 2025.[] Following the MMWR’s regular publication schedule, a report should have been released on January 23, 2025.
Related: 'I am absolutely terrified about the future of medicine'—young docs share fears, along with hope and advice for their peersSince 1960, the MMWR has been released every week without fail.
“Often called ‘the voice of CDC,’ the MMWR series is the agency’s primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations,” the CDC’s website reads.[]
The freeze on the report has alarmed public health experts.
Tom Frieden, MD, the former director of the CDC, took to X to share his concerns.
“Every day this vital publication is delayed, doctors, nurses, hospitals, local health departments and first responders are behind the information curve and less prepared to protect the health of all Americans,” he wrote.[]
CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) has provided real-time data and analysis about disease outbreaks and emerging health threats without a break every week since 1960.
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) January 23, 2025
Until today.
An unprecedented move
Timothy Holtz, MD, MPH, Professor, Redstone Chair, and Director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness at George Washington University, says the move is unprecedented.
“To put a halt on a scientific communication product from the national public health agency seems, to me, to be interfering with the scientific process,” Dr. Holtz tells MDLinx.
It is not clear whether the MMWR will come back soon, but some reports say don't expect anything until at least February.
In a memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services Dorothy Fink said that an “immediate pause” is in effect through February 1, 2025.[]
Could bird flu force the report's return?
Experts hope that the report, which has been a mainstay in the field of public health for decades, resumes. But what will it take to push the release?
If the CDC’s communication strategy seems sluggish now, more bird flu cases could be the tipping point that forces a stronger response. With recent H5N1 detections in dairy cattle and sporadic human cases, physicians are already raising concerns about transparency and timeliness. If infections spread further—especially among people—pressure from healthcare professionals, the media, and policymakers may push the CDC to issue more urgent and widespread alerts
🧪The CDCs weekly science report is indefinitely on hold, stalling important bird flu studies.
— Amy Maxmen, PhD (@amymaxmen) January 30, 2025
This unprecedented freeze sparks concerns of political meddling in science. "If it’s not short-lived, it’s censorship.”
My latest @KFFHealthNews https://t.co/AfAQlo7kbH
“[The MMWR] has always been published, despite all the natural and other sorts of disasters and changes in government,” Stephen Morse, PhD, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, tells MDLinx.
“So, I hope we'll see it restored and coming back perhaps next week,” Dr. Morse adds.