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Retiring CDC Official Shares Her
Reflections On Decades Of Service In Public Health
“Our World
Needs You” She Tells A New Generation
In a
guest essay published in the New York Times in early June, Anne
Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, has reflected on her more than three decades
of service to the public health agency.
According to Schuchat, “public service is a privilege” and for her it
has also been a joy. In reviewing her service at the agency, she
offered several observations she wanted to share with the American
public.
The
Little Engine
First,
public service is difficult. This Schuchat ascribed mostly to the
chronic underinvestment in public health that has characterized the US
situation for many years. She compares the progressive weakening of
core capacities in public health with the much rosier picture in
funding for basic research and development in biomedicine. In the
past, the public health system has managed with limited or delayed
funding to be the little engine that could. But the COVID situation
was too much and the system became the little engine that couldn’t.
Schuchat adds, “…I hope that it has become clear to the nation and its
policymakers that when we don’t invest in public health, everyone is
vulnerable.”
Saving Lives
Second,
public service is meaningful. To make her point, Schuchat relates the
impact of new guidelines for screening of pregnant women to help
prevent group B strep which
she
helped to
develop
in the late 1990’s. The new guidance is credited with preventing over
100,000 life threatening infections since then. Bottom line: public
health work matters and makes a difference. By implication, the
message is that not all jobs provide this type of satisfaction.
Teamwork
Thirdly,
public service is also joyful, according to Schuchat, because she was
able to experience the benefits of teamwork, namely achieving things
greater as a group than you could hope to do alone.
Schuchat
closed her essay by noting the historic magnitude of the disruption
caused by SARS-CoV-2 and the pandemic and stated “I hope this is also
a moment when a new generation is called to action, to experience the
difficulty and the meaning and joy of public service. Our world needs
you.” ■
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