One of the defining characteristics of Donald Trump is his obsession with grandiose claims. He describes everything he does as being so big, so huge and so impactful that “nobody’s ever seen anything like it.” Unfortunately, sometimes, there is a macabre truth to his words. Such is the case with the record Trump and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. delivered last week, when public health officials confirmed more cases of measles in the United States in 2026 than in any other year since 1991. Keep in mind that there are still five months remaining in the year to add to this tally. There is good reason to believe that the numbers will only continue to grow — in the 18 months since Trump returned to office, more cases of measles have been reported in the U.S. than in the past 25 years combined.
These tragic numbers underscore the resurgence of a disease that was once considered eliminated in the United States but has since returned with a vengeance, bringing not only an uncomfortable rash but increased risks of long-term vision and hearing loss, chronic respiratory damage and permanent brain damage. It is a remarkable achievement that demonstrates what happens when scientific expertise is sidelined, public health agencies are hollowed out and conspiracy theories are elevated over evidence. Trump is making contagion great again. Measles is only the beginning. Across the country, Americans are now contending with an extraordinary series of disease outbreaks and foodborne illnesses, many of which are driven by misinformation, policy choices and conspiracy theories promoted by Trump and RFK Jr.
For example, declining immunization rates have increased whooping cough transmission. When Trump took office, he rolled back Biden-era bird flu preparedness efforts — canceling a $590 million vaccine development contract with Moderna, halting cross-agency collaboration and laying off key scientists — even as the H5N1 virus continued to spread through more than 1,100 dairy herds in 19 states. Millions of eggs were recalled last week due to concerns about a salmonella outbreak. And it shouldn’t come as any surprise that following massive budget and staffing cuts to parasite monitoring programs, screwworm was detected in the U.S. for the first time since its eradication in 1966, and a massive outbreak of cyclospora has left more than 11,000 people in 41 states suffering through weeks of debilitating gastrointestinal illness.
No administration can prevent every outbreak. Nature has always had a vote. But a competent government can detect threats earlier, contain them faster and minimize the damage. Instead, Trump and RFK Jr. are dismantling the nation’s public health infrastructure at an alarming rate.
One might think that after he led the nation to disaster with COVID-19 in his first term, Trump would have learned the importance of taking public health seriously. But that assumes we have a president who acts based on evidence as opposed to personal fantasy. We don’t.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lost roughly a quarter of its workforce under Trump and RFK Jr.’s leadership. The Food and Drug Administration has lost about one-fifth of its staff. Programs dedicated to tracking foodborne illnesses have been reduced, advisory committees on food safety have been eliminated and the CDC’s specialized cyclospora laboratory has reportedly shrunk from 11 scientists to just three. FoodNet, once a robust surveillance network tracking multiple dangerous pathogens, no longer conducts mandatory cyclospora monitoring. A long-awaited federal food traceability rule that could dramatically speed outbreak investigations has been delayed until 2028.
Moreover, working with GOP leaders in Congress, the Trump administration has sought to offload food surveillance and facility inspections to state and local authorities while simultaneously cutting funding for state and local food-safety grants and overturning state and local regulations that govern food safety. As a result, food-safety inspections have dramatically declined, especially with regard to overseas facilities. In 2025, FDA inspections of overseas facilities producing food for the U.S. market fell to their lowest level since the modern foreign-inspection mandate began in 2011, excluding the pandemic years — yet another Trump record.
Then there is Kennedy, a notably weird figure even among Trump’s clown car of Cabinet members. In recent years, Kennedy has been a leading voice in promoting antivaccine misinformation and embracing scientifically discredited theories that have undermined public confidence in immunization. At a moment when measles is roaring back and vaccine-preventable diseases are once again threatening American children, placing an antiscience activist in charge of HHS sends precisely the wrong message.
In essence: RFK Jr. is protecting us from science and cures and prevention. Some Americans will live with a lasting legacy from RFK Jr. and Trump: a severe reaction to a preventable illness.
Almost as troubling has been Trump’s response. Asked recently about the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of Americans with severe diarrhea, Trump said “I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it.” For families dealing with weeks of illness, expensive hospital visits and missed paychecks, it was hardly reassuring leadership. Americans expect presidents to project competence during public health crises, not indifference.
The administration’s defenders often dismiss concerns as partisan fearmongering. Yet criticism has come from former FDA officials who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents. Even Trump’s former deputy commissioner for food policy and response, Frank Yiannas, has called for an independent review of the government’s response to the cyclospora outbreak.
Of course, Trump, RFK Jr. and GOP leadership don’t need to worry about the dismantling of America’s public health infrastructure. As Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is currently demonstrating, government officials have the freedom to take six weeks off work to recover from illness while continuing to receive a taxpayer-funded paycheck, full payment of hospital bills and without any fear of being fired.
The average American doesn’t enjoy those luxuries. Most workers living paycheck to paycheck cannot simply disappear for weeks after contracting measles, cyclospora or salmonella. Missing work often means missing rent, groceries or utility payments and it sometimes means losing your job — an already difficult circumstance that congressional Republicans have made more difficult via cuts to the social safety net. Public health is an economic necessity for working families.
Strong food safety standards, fully staffed public health agencies and accessible health care are not extravagant luxuries. They are among the most basic responsibilities of a functioning government. Partisanship shouldn’t prevent GOP leaders from protecting citizens from preventable disease.
As voters prepare for the November election, they should remember this summer of outbreaks. They should remember the experts who warned against dismantling the CDC and FDA. They should remember the indifference that replaced urgency and the conspiracy theories that replaced science. And they should seriously consider returning control of Congress to Democrats who, whatever disagreements voters may have with them on other issues, have consistently supported stronger food-safety protections, adequately staffed public health agencies and health insurance that helps Americans afford care when prevention inevitably falls short. A healthier nation begins with leaders who believe in science, respect expertise and understand that safeguarding public health is one of the government’s first obligations — not an afterthought.
