By Molly Cavanaugh, November 2025

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, is a government run scientific authority based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC, originally standing for Communicable Disease Center, was established in 1946 to prevent malaria in the US (1). Since then, the CDC has grown to over 13,000 public health professionals in about 60 countries (2, 3). While the CDC is well known, much of their importance as the center of public health in the United States is not visible to the general public. Since January 2025, billions of dollars from health grants have been cut; services, like the reports which track outbreaks, have been abandoned; and over 3000 scientists and doctors have been fired (4, 5, 6). The proposed budget for 2026 includes a devastating reduction in the overall budget of the CDC from $9.2 billion in 2025 to $4.3 billion in 2026 (7). This cut in funding will result in much more than just firings and cutting programs, it will have disastrous consequences ranging from reduction in public trust to causing an economic downturn. 

The CDC acts as the backbone of public health in the United States by tracking health statistics, educating the public, preventing disease, and by working with state and local healthcare centers. CDC programs are essential for the health of the US. One CDC program tracks and prevents food poisoning outbreaks from Salmonella, E. coli Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia  (8, 9). These bacteria accounted for 53,300 hospitalizations and 931 deaths in 2019 (10). The CDC also investigates disease outbreaks that could become epidemic or pandemic level threats through their program: National Outbreak Reporting System (11). In addition to tracking and stopping outbreaks, the CDC conducts groundbreaking research that has resulted in successes like the development of rapid field tests for ebola, an extremely deadly virus (12). The CDC also helps significantly curb the spread of HIV by working with local health departments to create programs specific to each community to educate and protect those vulnerable to HIV (13). The CDC acts as an essential source of information as well as the agency which protects the American people from disease.

In October, 1300 CDC employees were fired, only for 700 of them to be reinstated the next day (14). These firings, even the brief ones, cause chaos and carry big ramifications. Public trust in science is essential to allowing science to advance (15). Any scientific advice or invention is useless if it does not have the trust and support of the public. Scientists earn trust and support by following strict standards under supervision from experts. The CDC is seen as a source of reliable science due to its long pattern of serving the American people through non-partisan, fact based research. Frequent and unexplained cuts to the CDC keeps the CDC from being able to properly do its job and undermines trust in the institution. More simply put – if the CDC is constantly firing and rehiring and abandoning programs, how can the public trust that they are undergoing all of the proper steps to protect our health? Public trust in science has been on the rise since the pandemic, but the chaos has reduced the effectiveness of the CDC, thus reducing public trust in the organization (16).

This uncertainty and chaos caused by constant changes in funding and staffing will also deter scientists from joining government agencies like the CDC. In the United States, most biological scientists have three major options after their PhD: 1. Industry – jobs like creating drugs or testing new products 2. Academia – working at a university, either working in a research laboratory or teaching, and finally 3. government – working for the government doing things like tracking or fighting diseases. Each of these paths has pros and cons. Working for the government comes with relative job security, reasonable pay, and career advancement, making it an enticing choice for young scientists. If these firings continue and these programs keep disappearing, the CDC and other government labs may no longer be seen as a good option for scientists to work.

More worryingly, the cuts to science in the United States are making scientists in all fields, not just in government, consider leaving the US to find more stable employment abroad. America has been the powerhouse of science since the 1940s, giving the US massive international influence and economic power (17). The economic value of research is so great that in 2023, research and development contributed 940 billion dollars to the American economy (18). But since the start of 2025, science funding has been cut by billions of dollars, leaving thousands of scientists unsure of a future in the US (19). A survey in the top biomedical journal, Nature, found that over 75% of American scientists are considering leaving the US (20). Canada and The European Union have already started creating programs to hire American scientists who are dissatisfied with cuts and firings in the US (21). If the seat of science moves away from the US, American power and economics will suffer.

While the federal government will save money initially through their cuts to the CDC, these savings come at a cost to the states and American public. These cuts translate to lost jobs in every US state, up to 42,000 total jobs across the country (22). These job cuts will lead to additional jobs cuts and decrease revenue to states through taxes and expenditures. For example, in Atlanta, hotels, restaurants, and contractors will all suffer indirectly due to lack of business brought in by the CDC. In fact, research suggest that the states will lose 40% more than the federal government will save, causing an overall loss of 5.4 billion dollars for the states (22). Importantly, it is more than just the loss of jobs that will hurt state’s economies. Money spent on the CDC is an investment into future public health. The CDC works to prevent and eventually cure a whole host of chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and cancer (23, 24, 25). The United States currently pays 4.9 trillion dollars per year on healthcare costs, 90% of which comes from treating chronic diseases (26). By reducing funding for disease prevention, the progress to stop chronic and infectious disease will be significantly slowed (27). If we stop investing in the future of public health, we will pay more later treating diseases that we could have prevented. These diseases will not go away if we stop funding prevention and treatment. Instead, when we stop tracking and preventing disease, more Americans will develop both chronic and infectious disease, raising healthcare costs and worsening the health of the US at the same time.

The CDC is essential for public health. It funds and operates disease control and prevention programs across the country and around the globe. CDC workers are on the front lines of ebola outbreaks in Congo, fighting to make sure the virus never reaches the US (28). They are tracking statistics of everything from West Nile fever cases to heart disease prevalence (29). They run a foundation dedicated to preventing suicide in veterans (30). But the CDC is more than the programs it runs, it is an organization designed to protect, serve, and educate the American people through good science. If we do not fund the CDC, the states will lose money, the public will lose trust in science, American scientists will take their training to foreign markets, and overall health outcomes of Americans will suffer.