On 28 August 2025, dozens of scientists with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) walked off the job in protest. This action, unprecedented in the history of one of the world’s foremost public health institutions, was a direct response to the dismissal of CDC director Susan Monarez, who had served less than one month before being fired by the Trump administration. Immediately following Monarez’s dismissal, three other senior CDC officials resigned in protest, sparking a publicized walkout by dozens of staff in solidarity.[1]

These remarkable events at the CDC represent a tipping point and reflect larger patterns: public health programs and related sciences are under fire. The late-summer CDC walkout followed months of rollbacks across several US health and scientific institutions. In addition to the CDC, the US federal administration has imposed financial cuts and restricted mandates across organizations, including the National Institutes of Health. This pattern has had significant implications and echoes worldwide, including in Canada.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has recently stated plans to cut approximately 10% of staff from the already-shrinking organization.[2] The federal government has described this downsizing as a “post-pandemic recalibration,” following the PHAC’s growth during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the PHAC has operated without a permanent chief public health officer for several months, with no replacement yet named for Dr Theresa Tam following her June resignation.

The experience of many medical and public health practitioners during the pandemic suggests a need for reflection and strategic growth in our public health institutions, not a retreat from hard-won gains. If there has been a common lesson from issues such as the pandemic and related misinformation worldwide—from heat waves and mass casualties in British Columbia, and from wildfire smoke and asthma surges across entire regions—that lesson has been that the health emergencies we face are increasingly complex, intense, and interrelated. There is a saying among emergency planners that the best time to prepare for an emergency is when there isn’t one; emergency preparedness and response are an ongoing cycle, not optional activities to be ramped up and down when politically or fiscally expedient.

Amid the ongoing dismantling of US health agencies, Canada can and should support our own renowned institutions. For example, vaccination is a hotly politicized issue among US health agencies, and the US CDC’s globally respected Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has seen a dangerous sequence of political firings and appointments,[3] losing public trust and further polarizing vaccine-related sentiment. In this moment, the strength of the PHAC’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization is crucial, promoting evidence-based practices and influencing health systems across the country (and in some cases globally).

In British Columbia, the provincial government is conducting a review of our own health system, including regional health authorities and programs of the Provincial Health Services Authority, such as the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and BC Cancer. The stated aim of this review is “minimizing unnecessary administrative spending and ensuring resources support frontline patient care.”[4] Few will argue against adequate support for frontline care. However, health care providers know the importance of scientific guidance on emerging public health threats, including climate change; clinical research closely linked with local practice; and upstream programs to prevent illness and promote health. Upheaval to the south highlights the necessity of a strong public health backbone for our health system.

We may not be able to affect or anticipate the actions of international leaders, even when their decisions wreak havoc and harm on health outside their borders. But our own leaders in Canada can choose to move in another direction, one that continues to support the well-being of organizations that support our health.
—Michael Schwandt, MD, MPH, FRCPC

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License [11].

References

1.    American Public Health Association. CDC leaders fight back in wake of attack on agency, public health. 29 August 2025. Accessed 6 September 2025. www.apha.org/publications/public-health-newswire/public-health-newswire/articles/cdc-leaders-fight-back-in-wake-of-attacks-on-agency [12].

2.    Major D. PHAC cutting hundreds of jobs as part of ‘post-pandemic recalibration’. CBC News. 3 September 2025. Accessed 6 September 2025. www.cbc.ca/news/politics/phac-job-cuts-320-1.7624642 [13].

3.    National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Experts sound alarm after ACIP members removed. 10 June 2025. Accessed 6 September 2025. www.nfid.org/experts-sound-alarm-after-acip-members-removed [14].

4.    Government of British Columbia. Health authority review expands to ensure support for front-line services. 10 June 2025. Accessed 6 September 2025. https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2025HLTH0057-000565 [15].