Pien Huang
speaker
78 appearances
4 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Mar 2025
Pien Huang’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Hey, Emily.
So a lot of similarities with what you just heard about NIH. So like the NIH, the CDC was hit by a communications freeze. People who had grants with CDC or had calls with them for ongoing outbreaks, couldn't speak with anyone there for a few weeks.
Also, as a result of Trump's executive orders, there was this weekend at the end of January where web pages and data sets started disappearing from the CDC website. You know, this was when references to trans people and pregnant people were taken down, along with some tools that policymakers used to track HIV and STIs and adolescent health. Now, some of that has gone back up.
And in February, a federal judge actually ordered them to put the websites back up.
And then also in terms of the workforce, like at the other health agencies, there was a firing at CDC around 750 people were let go around Valentine's Day. although some have actually been asked to come back. And all of this has just been really distracting from the agency's mission, which is to keep the nation safe.
What are we dealing with when it comes to disease? So right now, there are more than half a dozen active outbreak responses at CDC right now. So those cover things like bird flu, mpox. There's East Africa viral hemorrhagic fever, also tropical insect-borne diseases, dengue and orapouche. And There's also one for measles in Texas and now New Mexico and an ongoing polio response.
And those are just the formal responses. It doesn't include the CDC's regular other work on things like worker health or preventing accidents or chronic diseases or dealing with the health effects of environmental toxins, for instance.
There were two programs in particular that got a lot of attention for being wiped out. That was the Laboratory Leadership Service, which is this partner fellowship to the Epidemic Intelligence Service, which is well known. It's the EIS program. And then also the Public Health Associate Program, which puts recent graduates in state and local health departments together.
Those left some gaps in the public health system that our colleague Will Stone and I have been reporting on. Now, the members of these two fellowships in particular have been asked to return. They got these emails last week saying, Your termination has been rescinded. You can come back and, quote, we apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.
And these fellowships make up a sizable number of the 180 or so people that have been asked to return. But still, you know, these rescindments offered no protections against future reductions in force, which are expected to be coming to the agency.
Yeah, Emily, all of this chaos and confusion at the agency is having some lingering effects. There are scientists and researchers that have this mistrust of the data on the CDC website now. They're concerned that it's corrupted or that – The data that was re-uploaded? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So they're worried that it won't be collected in the same way going forward or that there might be interruptions to it. They're not sure that they can rely on it. Right. The agency is also, even though the communications freeze has officially lifted, it's not back to super normal communications. And staff morale is really awful.
I mean, some teams have lost really critical people and nobody there feels like their job is safe. So this week, there's a confirmation hearing for Dr. Dave Weldon, who is Trump's pick for the CDC. It's the first time that a CDC director needs to be confirmed by the Senate, and it could soon have a new leader.
I mean, I can jump in here, Emily. So based on how it's gone so far, people we've spoken with are worried that these cost-cutting measures are making things less efficient in the short term, and they're undermining these agencies and their ability to fulfill their missions to protect and improve people's health in the long run. Okay.
You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, short wavers. Emily Kwong here with health correspondent Ping Huang and NPR producer Megan Lim. Hi, you both. Hey, hey.
That's amazing. All right, well, I want to hear about how they did it. Today on the show, the long battle against Rocky Mountain spotted fever on Arizona tribal lands. Ping and Megan are going to take us around the San Carlos Apache Reservation. and show you how the tribe is winning against the ticks. I'm Emily Kwong, and you're listening to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.
To be totally honest, I am unfamiliar with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. What does that disease involve, Ping?
Wow, that sounds really bad. And did they call it Black Measles because it cause like dark splotches or something?
Yeah, no kidding.
Okay, so that's kind of the history of the disease, how it got to have such a big range. Megan, what does it do? to those who get bitten?
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