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APHA is the leading voice and advocate for improving the public’s health, and an active participant in conversations impacting the health of all Americans. We work with journalists covering the nation’s health and telling the stories of Americans looking to live healthy lives and public health workers on the frontlines of caring for all.
 
The following are some of the recent media pieces that Dr. Georges Benjamin, APHA's executive director, participated in:

1. Dr. Benjamin spoke to STAT [ [link removed] ] about the role of the chronic disease center at the CDC.
 
Dr. B. pointed out that there are 3,300 public health departments across the country, some with hundreds of employees and some with just two.
 
“We’re the gap filler for people to make sure that even within the traditional medical system, things don’t fall through the cracks,” he said about individual public health systems. “If you start seeing a new cancer developing, that’s going to be picked up by the chronic disease center.”
 
Case in point: HIV was initially recognized after a rare cancer related to the infection began showing up in men who had sex with men, later linked to the disease that became an epidemic. “This is the division that’s going to figure that out. It’s not NIH,” Benjamin said about the chronic disease center at CDC.
 
2. Dr. Benjamin talks to News From the States [ [link removed] ] , Politico [ [link removed] ] and Washington Post [ [link removed] ] about RFK Jr. ending the COVID vaccine recommendation for healthy children and pregnant people.
 
News From the States
Dr. B. wrote in a statement that “(v)accines offer the best protection from severe symptoms and death associated with the COVID-19 virus for all populations.
 
“This decision by Secretary Kennedy puts kids, pregnant moms and their babies at risk of unnecessary suffering that is preventable. Lots of questions remain as to how HHS leadership plans to implement this poorly thought out announcement that is not supported by the scientific evidence and our national experience.”
 
Politico
“I’m disturbed for a couple reasons”. “I don’t believe that they followed the normal process whereby you bring the advisory committees into this decision.” Dr. Benjamin also said the decision raises questions about whether healthy children or pregnant women will continue to be able to access the COVID vaccination or whether insurers will reimburse for the shot.
 
Washington Post
Dr. B. said the administration had been telegraphing this move for some time, but he asked about the data to support the conclusion that those vaccines might pose health risks for those populations. “Are they making this decision without going to any of their advisory committees?” Benjamin said. “Show us the evidence, the studies that have been done. … I don’t know of any.”
 
3. Dr. Benjamin talks to NBC News [ [link removed] ] and New York Times [ [link removed] ] about the new RFK Jr./MAHA report on children that takes issue with medications, food additives and chemicals
 
NBC News
While the MAHA report addresses some real issues, “the problem is that they need to come up with meaningful solutions,” said Dr. Benjamin. He also said many of the suggested research areas in the report are already being studied, adding that the Trump administration’s massive cuts to NIH grants could be at odds with their goal. “They keep saying that they want to do ‘gold standard research’ but they’ve cut funding from many of the nation’s leading academic centers,” he said.
 
New York Times
Dr. B. pointed out that the report called for “gold-standard research,” even as the administration had drastically cut funding for science and halted payments to universities like Harvard and Columbia. “They’re not walking the walk,” he said. “They’re just talking.”

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Public health is under threat from program cuts, misinformation and attacks on science — putting decades of progress at risk.
 
At APHA, we’re speaking out, filing lawsuits and taking action to defend evidence-based policies and protect the systems that keep people healthy. But we can’t do it alone.

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Legislative & Legal Actions
 
1. With the federal government working on a new budget, we issued statements on why Congress must reject the president’s dangerous FY 2026 budget request and how the House reconciliation bill would take insurance coverage away from millions and roll back clean air and climate protections. [ [link removed] ]
2. We’re calling on people to use our Action Alert [ [link removed] ] to tell their Senator to oppose the House budget bill and any cuts to health coverage, nutrition benefits and environmental protections.
3. Our lawsuits against the administration continue.

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