April 9, 2025

'Invisible until it's bad'

While the upheaval at the Department of Health and Human Services is getting more headlines, local public health organizations are also facing a moment of reckoning. Major cuts are leaving them with fewer resources and employees, which will have immediate ramifications. In this week's episode of the First Opinion Podcast, STAT editor Torie Bosch spoke with two directors of county-level public health departments: Raynard Washington of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, and Michelle Taylor of Shelby County in Tennessee.

"A lot of times public health is invisible until it's bad," Taylor said. It's only when things get tougher that the community starts to pay attention — and that time may be coming soon.

The conversation was inspired by their recent First Opinion essay on the threat posed by the closure of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office of HIV Prevention.

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