In April of 2025, the Advisory Committee for Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children was dissolved by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and other national scientific advisory committees. This committee advised the secretary on which newborn screening diseases should be tested by state public health departments.

As part of the national newborn screening system, the committee, consisting of federal and state public health professionals, pediatricians, geneticists, researchers, professional associations, advocates, and parents, reviewed scientific studies for evidence to justify adding a disease to a newborn screening panel.

On the same day in April, thousands of public health scientists were fired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These dismissals, and other funding cuts put newborn babies’ lives at risk. Most of the money in the CDC budget supports state public health departments, but now fewer resources will go to states to improve newborn screening testing.

The newborn screening system is fraying. States test newborns and contact families of at-risk babies, ensure the baby has more testing, help with access to medical treatments, and track how well the baby is doing. These critical services and CDC other activities are being attacked by politicians and a culture that devalues scientific expertise.

That culture was on display on Aug. 8, when a gunman opened fire on the CDC campus, killing a law enforcement officer, and forcing a lockdown of the agency, a university, a day care center, and a neighborhood. The leadership of CDC was further attacked on Aug. 27 by the firing of the CDC director followed by the resignation of top CDC leaders.

I grew up in Ludlow, the first-generation child of working-class immigrant parents. I attended public schools and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where I trained in biology and chemistry. My public education enabled me to get a job at CDC, and I retired this year after 34 years of service. For most of my career, I managed the Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program, which directly supports state laboratories to ensure newborn screening results are accurate.

Public health works because of the dedicated service of hundreds of thousands of federal and state civil servants who are your friends and neighbors. We do it because we care. I learned to care from family, teachers, nurses, doctors, professors, and mentors. I am proud that I care, proud of my immigrant parents, my hometown, my public education, which is also under attack, and my career at CDC. My heart aches that some of us have stopped caring.

CDC and the national systems that are the foundation of public health are under attack. The lives of newborn babies are at risk due to non-scientific political decisions. This has ramifications for all of us, our families, and future generations.

Joanne Mei

Atlanta, Georgia