Almost two years ago, on March 23, 2023, I took over the reins of the Presidency of ACPM from the outgoing President, Dr. Tonette Krousel-Wood. This transition was in her hometown of New Orleans, and I did not realize at the time, that I would be getting some lagniappe – a little something extra, as my term ends on May 8, 2025, a bit more than the anticipated two-year period!
Even as I am on borrowed time, this is my penultimate letter as ACPM’s President, and I want to address several changes at the HHS that have caused chaos across the medical community, both nationally and internationally.
We have a national measles outbreak that now exceeds 300 cases across 15 states, and this has surpassed the number of measles cases for all of 2024. It is a time when we have also seen thousands of HHS workers fired, only to have a judge tell the government that it must reinstate the fired probationary employees at nearly all federal agencies. In addition, another federal judge has ordered HHS, CDC and FDA to restore webpages and data that have been removed at the direction of the current administration. Moreover, multiple courts have ruled against the administration’s various spending freezes, for both domestic and international programs.
As the lawsuits pile up and the administration battles in court over its policies and actions, we all as Preventive Medicine physicians have to continue our work, focused on promoting good public health policy and prevention, for a healthier America. And in many ways, we are aligned with the administration’s stated goal to “Make America Healthy Again”, by reducing the epidemic of chronic disease, ensuring food and drug safety, and using rigorous scientific evidence to make public health and medical decisions.
However, if science is discarded, and disinformation is promoted, we must challenge and fight these actions that demonstrate a callous disregard for the truth. But even as we do so, we need to take some time to find tranquility in the midst of all this chaos. Unless we can do that, we risk increasing rates of depression and burnout within our medical community. Plus, over time, we will be unable to care for our patients and we will not be able to support our colleagues who have been harmed by these actions or who may be at risk of harm.
As I sit down to write this article, there are new media reports regarding the planned elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division focused on HIV prevention. How does this square with the desire to “Make America Healthy Again”? Thus, it is with a sense of urgency that I ask you to first look after your physical and mental health in the face of this chaos, and to then call upon your elected leaders to support public health workers and programs. Rather than curtailing the public health workforce, we as a nation should seek to enhance it via appropriate funding, and rather than eliminating or freezing funding for the important prevention work that we do, we should expand these types of programs, all of which America really needs, if we ever hope to become a healthy nation again.
Mirza I. Rahman, MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACPM
President
As the lawsuits pile up and the administration battles in court over its policies and actions, we all as Preventive Medicine physicians have to continue our work, focused on promoting good public health policy and prevention, for a healthier America. And in many ways, we are aligned with the administration’s stated goal to “Make America Healthy Again”, by reducing the epidemic of chronic disease, ensuring food and drug safety, and using rigorous scientific evidence to make public health and medical decisions.
However, if science is discarded, and disinformation is promoted, we must challenge and fight these actions that demonstrate a callous disregard for the truth. But even as we do so, we need to take some time to find tranquility in the midst of all this chaos. Unless we can do that, we risk increasing rates of depression and burnout within our medical community. Plus, over time, we will be unable to care for our patients and we will not be able to support our colleagues who have been harmed by these actions or who may be at risk of harm.
As I sit down to write this article, there are new media reports regarding the planned elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's division focused on HIV prevention. How does this square with the desire to “Make America Healthy Again”? Thus, it is with a sense of urgency that I ask you to first look after your physical and mental health in the face of this chaos, and to then call upon your elected leaders to support public health workers and programs. Rather than curtailing the public health workforce, we as a nation should seek to enhance it via appropriate funding, and rather than eliminating or freezing funding for the important prevention work that we do, we should expand these types of programs, all of which America really needs, if we ever hope to become a healthy nation again.
Mirza I. Rahman, MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACPM
President