As the f47 administration has shutdown USAID and is severely restricting the CDC, the repercussions are beginning to be felt.
There is a ebola outbreak occurring in Uganda. Normally USAID would be helping to fight the outbreak, but instead there is now understaffed contract tracing and screening of international air travelers. Virtually all USAID staff will be put on leave this Friday, shutting down most all overseas missions.
A dozen Americans have been exposed to this Sudan Ebola strain spreading in Uganda which has no FDA approved vaccine. They have not shown symptoms. Normally the CDC would be preparing for possible U.S. cases by now but all communication, external meeting and information sharing that health authorities usually rely on to communicate with CDC officials were canceled amid the "pause" across the Department of Health and Human Services. This is causing confusion and worry. The CDC was able to publish a travel alert on Wednesday about travel to Uganda, but it left out links and information from the WHO's updates about the outbreak likely because we broke ties with WHO.
@lovendures Thank you for the update on this topic. Do you know the best way to stay informed and in the loop on this topic?
The CDC eventually did end up posting about the outbreak. My understanding is they are limited about what they are allowed to post in general and communication is not very good right now due to well, you know.
There is a European Centre for Disease and Prevention broke the story a day before the CDC. Most US institutions waited for the CDC advisory before issuing their own alert. Who has been following this and issued an earlier report on January 30th.
Some US universities who specialize in medicine have reported it before the CDC as well.
I found out by looking at the altCDC site on Bluesky and then searched other sources to confirm.
Here is one source to possibly use:
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
The CDC eventually did end up posting about the outbreak. My understanding is they are limited about what they are allowed to post in general and communication is not very good right now due to well, you know.
There is a European Centre for Disease and Prevention broke the story a day before the CDC. Most US institutions waited for the CDC advisory before issuing their own alert. Who has been following this and issued an earlier report on January 30th.
Some US universities who specialize in medicine have reported it before the CDC as well.
I found out by looking at the altCDC site on Bluesky and then searched other sources to confirm.
Here is one source to possibly use:
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy
@kellynoelzeva, forgot to tag you!.
@lovendures Thank you for finding all this public health information. I checked out the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and am glad to find an alternative source on disease topics.
I don't know if people here understand what Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does-- they are comprised of thousands of research doctors who perform and gather medical research. They are the gold standard for public health dissemination in the US. Your doctor relies on the findings and protocols they issue for disease detection and treatment. They also work with the World Health Organization, which Trump has broken off ties with.
To think that a medically ill informed, emotionally unstable, RFK, Jr., who got his kids vaccinated but publlicly told parents not to vaccinate their kids, will be leading HHS which oversees CDC is beyond disturbing. I went to a small social event yesterday attended by a handful of people from the Harvard Medical School community. I was glad to hear that some of them are standing up and actively opposing the Administration, doing what they can.
The American Medical Association is posting updates on bird flu, ebola, and other diseases since the CDC cannot:
https://youtube.com/@americanmedicalassociation?feature=shared
This is great, but I wish the AMA would have had the guts to stand up in the Senate and opposed RFK, Jr.'s nomination. That would have virtually guaranteed that the Senate would have the votes to oppose the nomination. But the word I've read is that they want to stay on the good side of the GOP who can help them make more money. Same thing with Big Pharma.