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Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for people under the age of 45. So many people in public health are alarmed that earlier this month, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cut much of the workforce at the CDC, who focus on preventing injuries. NPR's Will Stone reports.
WILL STONE, BYLINE: Just before they were fired, CDC staff were ready to launch a new data system to accurately track concussions. They were planning to release guidance on traumatic brain injury in children and publish findings on drownings after natural disasters. They were gathering data on overdoses and suicides to forecast trends and studying how people were dying in car crashes. This is the kind of work that stopped with the layoffs, according to five CDC staff whose jobs were eliminated. NPR is not using their names because they are on administrative leave and not authorized to speak to the press.
SHARON GILMARTIN: The cuts to the Injury Center were devastating.
STONE: Sharon Gilmartin directs Safe States Alliance, a nonprofit that works closely with CDC and local health departments. Her group has talied more than 200 job cuts at the Injury Center.
GILMARTIN: Motor vehicle crashes, child maltreatment, rape prevention and education, drowning prevention - all of that has been completely eliminated.
STONE: Gilmartin says some were spared, including the overdose division, but others doing critical work are also gone, like the branch that crunched all the numbers and maintained a key national database on injuries, tracking suicide attempts, drowning, sexual violence and so on. Christen Rexing leads the Society for Advancement of violence and injury research.
CHRISTEN REXING: That's one of my concerns, is that we will not have this comprehensive surveillance system, so we will not know what is killing us.
STONE: Injury data may end up scattered, and some data won't be collected at all. For example, the CDC kept up a close-to-real-time picture of injuries in the U.S. based on ER records at about 100 hospitals. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, which partnered with the CDC on this, told NPR they were directed to stop this work and will only focus on products. CDC also funds work on injury prevention in states and universities. The staff who handle that are gone, and advocates believe the funding will dry up, too.
REXING: I do see it as a collapse in the field, the development of the field, the knowledge we already have.
STONE: In response to NPR's questions, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that critical CDC programs that help research injury and violence prevention will continue as a part of Secretary Kennedy's vision to streamline HHS.
MARK ROSENBERG: If you stop the work, if you stop the research, if you stop these programs, then the results could be disastrous.
STONE: Dr. Mark Rosenberg was the first director of the CDC Injury Center.
ROSENBERG: All along, this has been a bipartisan effort. There's nothing partisan about injuries. These are our kids who are being shot, our kids who are drowning, our kids who are being abused and neglected.
STONE: The scope of this work is incredibly broad, and we take it for granted now - safer car designs, bike helmets, smoke alarms. Rosenberg says, the CDC helped drive all of this over the years, and it's especially relevant today with crises like drug overdoses and gun violence. Beth Moracco directs the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center.
BETH MORACCO: This is critical work that's been done at such a low cost with such a high return. And a lot of it's unseen, right?
STONE: Because when no one gets hurt, it doesn't usually make headlines. Will Stone and PR News.
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