Influenza, and Bird Flu, and TB, Oh My!
The United States is currently experiencing its worst flu season in 15 years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting at least 29 million cases - the highest number since the 2009-2010 season. This surge in seasonal influenza coincides with an expanding outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza that has now infected 67 people across multiple states, marking the first sustained transmission of bird flu to humans in the U.S.
Against this backdrop of escalating disease threats, the federal public health infrastructure faces unprecedented disruption. On January 20, 2025, the Trump Administration ordered an immediate halt to external communications from federal health agencies, including the CDC's primary vehicle for disseminating critical public health information - the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
The timing is… concerning. As noted by Stephanie Psaki, former U.S. coordinator for global health security, these restrictions come as public health officials also grapple with outbreaks of Marburg virus in Tanzania and Ebola in Uganda. The convergence of multiple disease threats with diminished public health response capabilities creates dangerous gaps in our ability to detect, track, and contain emerging outbreaks.
Public Health Infrastructure In Disarray
The dismantling of federal public health systems has proceeded with striking speed. On January 21, 2025, acting Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Dorothy Fink issued a directive halting all external communications from federal health agencies, requiring presidential appointee review of any document intended for publication. By January 31, federal health agencies had removed over 8,000 webpages from public access - including mission-critical resources like HIV prevention guidelines and clinical trial diversity databases. Though U.S. District Judge John Bates ordered the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore these resources on February 11, ruling their removal likely violated federal law, the disruption to public health operations remains significant. As one federal health official noted, "It was a double waste for us because we took them offline, put some of them back, edited others and now are putting it back again."
The administration's intervention in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report signals an even deeper assault on scientific independence. This cornerstone publication has served as the primary vehicle for disseminating public health information and recommendations since 1952, continuing without interruption even during government shutdowns - until now. Multiple federal health officials report that Trump Administration appointees have taken direct control over the journal's content, dictating coverage priorities and withholding completed studies about the expanding bird flu outbreak - including critical research about transmission patterns that could help prevent further spread.
As former CDC director Tom Frieden notes, "MMWR is the voice of science." The journal ranks among the most-cited health publications globally, with health officials, clinicians, and researchers relying on its studies for disease treatment and prevention guidance. The current interference represents a tectonic shift in how public health data and science are controlled and disseminated in the United States.
While Trump's first administration sought to influence public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic through selective pressure on specific reports, his second administration has taken direct editorial control over the entire infrastructure of public health communication and surveillance. This shift from attempting to shape the narrative to controlling the flow of scientific information itself represents a fundamental threat to public health practice and undermines the ability to detect, track, and respond to disease outbreaks.
Impact on Disease Surveillance
The impact of these system disruptions on disease surveillance became clear when the CDC finally released its delayed study of H5N1 infections among veterinarians. The research, conducted in September 2024 but held from publication until February 2025, revealed that three out of 150 cattle veterinarians tested positive for H5N1 antibodies despite having no known contact with infected animals. More concerning, one veterinarian practiced exclusively in Georgia and South Carolina - states with no previously reported cases of H5N1 in dairy cattle.
These findings expose serious gaps in our surveillance capabilities. As Lauren Sauer, professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health, explains, "Any detection of asymptomatic or mild cases in this study just tells me we're missing cases." None of the infected veterinarians reported respiratory symptoms or conjunctivitis, suggesting that focusing surveillance only on symptomatic cases substantially underestimates the true spread of the virus.
Unfortunately, surveillance problems are likely to get worse with the removal of demographic data collection capabilities from federal health agencies, crippling our ability to identify and address emerging disease patterns across different populations. When researchers cannot track where problems exist or evaluate which solutions work, targeted interventions become impossible to develop or assess.
The dairy industry illustrates these compounding challenges. Recent research shows that tracking human infections has been persistently difficult throughout the bird flu outbreak, with health agencies having limited authority to conduct disease surveillance on farms and workers often reluctant to get tested. Current restrictions on data collection and analysis magnify these existing barriers.
Time matters in disease surveillance. When we cannot accurately track disease spread or identify emerging patterns, we lose the ability to implement timely interventions that could prevent broader transmission. It’s a dangerous cycle where reduced surveillance leads to delayed responses, allowing outbreaks to expand unchecked before detection.
Consequences In The Field
Healthcare providers face mounting challenges in responding to multiple disease threats amidst systemic disruptions to public health infrastructure. While the CDC's recent health advisory provides guidance on expedited influenza A subtyping for hospitalized patients to identify potential H5N1 cases, the broader erosion of public health systems and communications channels complicates coordinated response efforts.
The impact of these systemic weaknesses is evident in Kansas, where the state faces one of the largest tuberculosis outbreaks ever recorded in the United States. The power granted to public health officials at both state and federal levels has been sharply curtailed, limiting officials' ability to mandate tests, isolation, or closures due to infectious disease. “You can think of TB outbreaks like a canary in the coalmine of our public health infrastructure,” said David Dowdy, professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“What causes them to happen is a weakening of our public health infrastructure.”
Healthcare facilities struggle to adapt while managing mounting disease pressures. Many hospitals have implemented temporary visitor restrictions in response to rising influenza cases, but without coordinated federal guidance, each facility must develop its own protocols. The resulting patchwork of inconsistent response measures places additional burden on already strained healthcare workers and creates confusion for patients and families seeking care across different facilities.
The loss of access to regularly updated and trustworthy federal guidelines and surveillance data forces healthcare providers to make critical decisions about testing, treatment, and infection control with incomplete information. This compromises not only their ability to provide optimal care but also undermines efforts to prevent disease spread within healthcare settings and the broader community.
A Record Flu Season
The current flu season illustrates how quickly policy decisions translate into public health outcomes. With 370,000 hospitalizations and 16,000 deaths so far, seasonal flu has overtaken COVID-19 in both metrics for the first time since the pandemic began. For the first time since the 2017-2018 season, the CDC has classified this as a high-severity season for all age groups.
The toll on children has been particularly severe, with 68 pediatric deaths reported and rising cases of serious neurological complications. These deaths are especially tragic given that influenza vaccination significantly reduces flu-related mortality across all age groups, cutting death rates by up to four times among vaccinated people.
The severity of this flu season cannot be separated from the broader erosion of trust in public health institutions and preventive measures. As Dr. Anice Lowen explains, influenza viruses follow predictable patterns that inform vaccine development and public health responses. When trust in these institutions is undermined and fewer people seek vaccination or follow prevention guidelines, it creates a cycle where reduced prevention leads to increased transmission, straining healthcare systems and potentially fostering even greater distrust in public health measures.
The political and policy implications extend beyond the federal chaos. In Louisiana, for example, health officials have been explicitly forbidden from promoting or advertising COVID, influenza, or mpox vaccines - a directive that strikes at the core mission of public health. As we face multiple concurrent disease threats, maintaining public confidence in science-based interventions becomes increasingly critical for protecting public health.
Critical Questions for Public Health
The dismantling of public health infrastructure through systematic defunding, deregulation, and politicization raises fundamental questions about the future of disease prevention and control in the United States. As the Trump Administration installs anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the helm of Health and Human Services, while simultaneously threatening to withhold federal funding from schools with COVID-19 vaccine requirements, we confront a sobering reality: federal public health leadership can no longer be relied upon as a consistent source of evidence-based guidance and response coordination.
The impact of this leadership void is already evident. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) continues to remove experienced staff from critical positions across federal health agencies, creating dangerous gaps in expertise. Even when forced to reverse course - as with the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) attempt to fire and then re-hire staff working on the bird flu response - the disruption to public health operations remains significant.
The transformation of public health into a political battleground makes scientific evidence and established prevention measures casualties of ideology. When political appointees amplify medical misinformation or withhold and reframe public health data to fit political narratives, they erode trust in the very institutions designed to protect population health.
As federal and state public health infrastructure faces unprecedented disruption, the public health community must grapple with several pressing questions:
How can state and local health departments maintain effective disease surveillance when federal systems prove unreliable?
What mechanisms can healthcare facilities develop to share data and clinical guidance without depending on federal channels?
Which legal frameworks best protect scientific integrity and public access to health data? While recent court orders have restored some removed resources, deeper questions remain about safeguarding public health information from political interference.
How can public health practitioners rebuild trust in science-based interventions when prevention measures become political battlegrounds? The record-breaking flu season highlights the human cost when evidence-based recommendations face systematic undermining.
What role should professional organizations and academic institutions play in maintaining disease surveillance and response capabilities? As federal expertise drains, alternative networks may need to fill critical gaps.
These questions reflect fundamental challenges to public health practice in the United States. When political pressure shapes which data gets collected, analyzed and shared, it compromises our ability to detect and respond to disease threats. The most vulnerable communities often bear the heaviest burden of these systemic failures.
The path forward requires careful examination of how public health systems can adapt while upholding scientific integrity and protecting population health. As multiple outbreaks strain our fractured infrastructure, finding answers to these questions becomes increasingly urgent.
Veterans Linkage to Care: Perspectives on HIV, Viral Hepatitis, Opioids & Mental Health
Approximately 8 percent of the U.S. population are Veterans, numbering over 18 million Americans with most of them being males and older than nonveterans. But those demographics will change in the coming years, with significant increases in ranks among women and minorities. As a society, we tend to view these men and women formerly in uniform as larger than life figures capable of overcoming almost any odds. The reality, however, is there are numerous ongoing public health challenges faced by Veterans in this country once discharged from the military – among them HIV, Hepatitis C, opioid dependence, and mental health conditions. As a society, don’t we owe it to them to provide the most timely, appropriate linkages to care and treatment?
In 2019, there were 31,000 Veterans living with HIV seeking care within the Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare system. Additionally, 3.4 million Veterans were eligible for HIV screening. Navigating the VA is challenging enough for our Veterans, but imagine doing so after first being diagnosed with a lifelong, chronic illness like HIV/AIDS? Although no longer a death sentence, Veterans need to learn how to steer living with HIV in what seems like a battlefield of complex bureaucratic systems, simply to start their care and treatment. For Veterans, staying connected to appropriate levels of care continues to be vital for many reasons.
For example, pulmonary hypertension – a blood pressure condition that affects the lungs and heart – is higher among Veterans living with HIV than in veterans who don’t have an HIV-positive diagnosis. What adds an extra level of concern is that Veterans with a CD4 count below 200 are also at higher risk of pulmonary hypertension, including Veterans who have viral loads higher than 500 copies per mL. Pulmonary hypertension within itself is a rare condition but that is exactly the reason why Veterans needs to remain linked to their healthcare providers. Some healthcare providers may not be actively probing for rare conditions like pulmonary hypertension and thus the condition and its possible progression will go largely undiagnosed. This further places into perspective the wide net needed in appropriate, timely HIV care and treatment that goes beyond taking antiretroviral (ARV) medication to achieve viral suppression.
Advances in HIV medicine – namely the introduction of the highly active antiretroviral treatment in 1996 – changed how people can live their lives after an HIV-diagnosis. Whereas people living with HIV who are virally suppressed have the same life expectancy as their non-positive counterparts, they’re also prone to age-related conditions and other co-morbidities, such as the previously discussed pulmonary hypertension. What this also means is that living longer, fuller lives also opens-up the door to emotional distresses.
Newly enlisted service members cycle through intense emotions when shifting from civilian life to the demands of military culture. Post discharge, Veterans can find themselves yet again cycling through acute reactions as they struggle to respond back into the reintegration of the everyday family and civilian life. As a result, studies have shown that incidences of ischemic stroke, the most common type, is more prevalent in Veterans who are HIV-positive dually diagnosed with depression in comparison to Veterans who don’t have a positive diagnosis without depression. This is significant because a common psychological effect of depression is isolation. Without proper linkages to care, so many human pathways of connectivity can begin to become severed. Positive behaviors and patterns begin to change, and this is a dangerous mental state to be in not only as a Veteran struggling with civilian life, but also maintaining the healthy and consistent level of care and treatment that is needed for Veterans living with HIV. It opens the door to poor medication adherence, decreased social networks, and increased likelihood of substance use disorder. These landmines are crucial markers to ensure Veterans living with HIV are kept engaged in their treatment plans. Likewise, all clinicians need to do the same by remembering to evolve with their clients to continue providing them with the services that they need and deserve.
Another silent threat facing both Veterans and nonveterans alike is Hepatitis C (HCV). The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) estimates there are nearly 2.4 Americans living with HCV. It continues to remain a public threat to the general population, but it particularly relevant to address how the silent epidemic is impacting Veterans.
If left untreated, HCV can be fatal because it can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. Veterans experience chronic HCV at three times the rate of the general population, with 174,000 Veterans in active care within the VA system. So, what factors need to be considered by Veterans seeking testing and treatment options for HCV? After all, modern medicine continuously changes the landscape of the available medical treatment options, and the constant reevaluation can be overwhelming. Fortunately, newer HCV therapies have made it a little easier. A qualitative analysis of 29 Veterans who were looking into HCV treatment, 35 total factors were of interest were identified. Of this set of 35 attributes, the top reported were treatment efficacy, physical side effects, new antiviral drugs in the pipeline, liver condition, and psychological side effects.
While the report’s findings aren’t necessarily surprising, how they structured their analysis is important. The Veterans in this study were placed in one of three categories that identified their personal stage of change – which were contemplating treatment, recently declined treatment, and recently initiated treatment. Successful linkages to care involve acknowledging where clients are in the process because it helps to identify and structure a patient centered treatment plan. What is important to remember is that each stage of change is shaped by the personal lived experiences clients are currently experiencing. Some of these subfactors are important social systems that they interchangeably occupy like family, friends, work, religion, and perhaps other various community engagements. All of which can greatly affect the decision-making process when considering treatment. Clinicians across the board need to have a clear picture as to what their client’s value and integrate those value systems into the appropriate levels of care to maximize the effectiveness of their treatment.
This same study uncovered another point of interest that is worth mentioning. When it came to gender, 50% of women compared to 14% of men, reported having concerns with social attributes like stress on partnerships and stigma associated with a disease. Additionally, women also reported concerns about maintaining their privacy within the systems that they occupy. In some ways these results are not surprising given the long history of women being undervalued and overexposed within society. That said, what this does highlight is how the concept and execution of healthcare needs the integration of a vast interpersonal team across a diverse and all-encompassing platform that has the capability to target these pockets of influence.
Healthcare disparities, unfortunately, exist across a wide spectrum within our medical framework and the VA isn’t immune from it. For minority Veterans with hepatitis C, seeking treatment are faced with unique barriers. For example, an HCV-diagnosis is four times more likely among minority Veterans compared to the general population. The VA’s Office of Health Equity (OHE) has done some great work in eliminating health disparities among minority Veterans with HCV, including testing. Testing is made available to all Veterans who are enrolled in the VA; they have treated more than 123,000 Veterans, and successfully cured more than 105,000 Veterans. The VA’s vigorous approach to its mission has been met with great results as race and ethnicity proportions are being treated equally with no population higher than the other. Effective strategies like video telehealth, the use of nonphysician providers, and electronic data tools for timely patient tracking and outreach have allowed the VA to expand their services to better address gaps in care. Work like this is needed across VA systems and local communities to minimize the gaps that are all too often seen in minority groups especially when there are 50,000 Veterans who are undiagnosed for HCV.
Any discussion about linkages to care needs to address the risk association between Hepatitis C and opioids. Since 2010, there have been correlating spikes in both. According to the CDC, HCV cases have nearly tripled between 2010-2015, and during this time the growing use of opioids exploded thanks to OxyContin, Vicodin, morphine, and fentanyl.
Like the general population, substance use disorder can be an inherited experience for Veterans, sometimes exacerbated by the effects of military culture. As a result, 1.3 million Veterans experience levels of substance use disorder. A study by the VA Health System in 2011 indicated that Veterans, when compared to the general population, are twice as likely to experience death from an opioid overdose incident. The biggest leading factor in this is prescription opioid medication and it continues to increase. In 2005, 4 percent of service members reported misusing their prescription medication. Three years later, 11 percent of service members reported the same misuse. The challenge here is that military culture demands a high level of sacrifice, which often comes with potential risk factors like bodily injuries and exposure to traumatic events. Both can be a slippery slope. Physical injury begins to be a major factor almost immediately after enlisting. Service members are pushed daily to exercise and ushered through a series of combat drills that will no doubt include heavy equipment. The body has a great ability to adapt and strengthen itself but like anything else, it has its limits. If this sets the stage for a revolving door of service members in physical pain, the natural course of action would be to provide medication to offset these symptoms. And just like that, accessibility without effective evaluations become the gateway to opioid substance use.
In the same fashion, traumatic events can leave service members feeling disconnected from where they’d like to be both emotionally and physically. In military culture, perception of strength is reality and as such, seeking services for mental health is often challenging for servicemembers as they don’t want to appear weak, so they suffer in silence. But that is exactly the reason why work is needed to change this outcome. Military culture to a very large degree is unwavering. It needs to build soldiers and do that; it needs to condition enlistees. However, it would be beneficial if clinicians and doctors within military culture to incorporate better systems of evaluation when it comes to pain management. This would also need to extend into the various VA systems that service members have access to. Relationships and bonds are obviously built within military culture and their importance may be of great benefit when combating the negative effects of stigma associated with mental health trauma. Community programs can be fostered and guided by various ranking officers to establish a sub community where conversations of real-life experiences demonstrate that a soldier of any rank can be supported by the comrades and communities that they protect.
But accessibility is a two-way street. Clients should have the ability to gain access to healthcare to receive treatment for various medical concerns. Clinicians or outreach programs should be able to have access to community members that need a particular public health service. Syringe services programs (SSP) introduced in the 1980s, have been adopted by the VA system to reduce the harm for Veterans who inject drugs . Veterans who utilize SSP’s can receive substance use and mental health services with the VA including additional services through an SSP program like vaccinations and naloxone, which helps to prevent an accidental overdose. Veterans benefit from community-based programs like this even with the controversies that the program may still carry since its inception. This program has been proven effective in reducing transmission of disease like HIV and Hepatitis C. While this program isn’t stopping the use intravenous drug use, it does open the door for Veterans who may be in a place mentally to accept help. Programs like this are a great hub to access community members and have conversations about recovery services. Like most things in life, addiction is complex involving a multitude of factors that contribute to the addictive behavior. Drugs are the symptom, but the person is the real key to the solution within the equation. Lived experiences matter when looking at public health issues across the board. How people experience live greatly shapes how they decide to show up for it, especially in challenging times. If there are 343,000 Veterans who use illicit drugs, then effective and targeted programs need to be in place not only at VA systems but also in their surrounding communities. One of the great aspects of SSP programs is that it targets Veterans by how they are currently living with a substance use disorder, and while strengthening community engagement through public service.
Military culture and trauma are often associated with one another, but it isn’t always linked to deployment. That said, combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is quite prevalent among active-duty service members, as well as Veterans. For service members nearing active-duty discharge, a diagnosis of PTSD may change the status of their discharge, greatly affecting the outcome of receiving services from the VA. The term “bad papers” is used within military culture to signify that a Veteran has been discharged unfavorably. A status discharge of other than-honorable is essentially the kiss of death because it means that a Veteran will not be able to access services through the VA. What is interesting about this status is that it is given for felonies, those absent without official leave (AWOL), desertion and Veterans with drug offenses. The issue then becomes the consequent behaviors of Veterans struggling with PTSD who turn to substance use to cope and who then also begin to have behavioral changes which affects level of performance on all fronts. Veterans carry an immense sense of pride for their service, and rightfully so. They have stepped in roles that most people don’t have the courage to do so. As an evolving clinician, seeing a Veteran struggle with PTSD due to the natural climate of what their duty demands of them, and then being shut out of benefits that are crucial to their mental health is just unacceptable. Discharge review boards really need to reconsider the criteria for evaluating Veterans who suffer from traumatic events. Not doing so sends a message that devalues the sacrifices that they have made which then perpetuates the stigma associated with their discharge status, but also reinforces the negative outlook of mental health within military culture. Veterans should not have to suffer in silence for enduring what was demanded of them and then be casted aside because their organization feels that their value has expired.
In 2016, over 1.5 million of the 5.5 million Veterans who entered the VA hospitals, had PTSD or other mental health diagnosis. That’s a staggering number especially when you consider the constant influx of Veterans who are returning home from deployment. Compared to the general population, suicide death rates are higher in Veterans, and furthermore female Veterans have a suicide rate of 35 per 100,000. Mental health services within the VA system have been on ongoing challenge as they try to meet the demand that Veterans need for crisis-intervention. As it is, mental health services are expensive for nonveterans, and even those who are insured may not have the adequate coverage to seek mental health services during a crisis episode. For Veterans returning home experiencing a mental health condition, this is disastrous as communities and VA systems both struggle to provide crisis stabilization and interventions. As a result, many Veterans experience depression on top of another mental health diagnosis like PTSD. Homelessness in Veterans is also increasing with more than 107,000 Veterans who are displaced. All of this is a perfect storm for a Veteran to feel like all hope is lost and consider suicide and reports reflect that with 21 Veterans, on average, dying of suicide every day. In society, there is a lot of talk about how all human beings are deserving of human equity. Human equity should include the ability to access mental health services (and healthcare as a whole), and the capability to navigate healthcare systems by having the support of organizations, communities, and effective public policy.
The military culture’s sphere of influence is completely different from civilian life. It is a complex system demanding everything military personnel can give, but it can often fall short when the time comes to giving back to Veterans. The sad truth is, Veterans often confront too many barriers when attempting to access appropriate timely care and treatment. It isn’t a secret that mental health disorders and other numerous challenges, such as substance use disorder, stem from military service-related experiences. Yet, systems in place for Veterans are inadequately structured to meet the numerous public health issues confronting Veterans and, subsequently, their families. Accessibility to healthcare services, including mental health, needs to encompass a wide net of effective policies and programs but also infused with the knowledge of how Veterans occupy the various systems that they live in and are affected by them. Too often in healthcare, clients are evaluated solely based off a diagnosis and without ever including who they are and their lived experiences. These are large, missed opportunities for clinicians to home in on invaluable information that can help formulate more effective treatment plans in conjunction with innovative and effective public policy. Hubs like VA systems are a great resource for Veterans, but we need to make sure the avenues of accessibility remain open for all Veterans that are eligible. It is very rare that a solution to a problem ever stands alone, and this perspective should continue to be a driver as community engagement and expansion in healthcare accessibility is needed. Veterans answered the call of duty without hesitation so now we must not drag our feet when Veterans need us the most in a war that poor public policy, lack of community programs and military culture has waged on them.
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