CDC Halts Successful Flu Vaccination Campaign, Sparking Health Concerns

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has terminated a successful flu vaccination campaign educating the public on the efficacy and benefits of flu vaccines, according to a report from NPR. The campaign, which uses infographics by depicting wild animals next to more tame animals, seeks to promote awareness on how immunization can help protect individuals from the flu.

The webpage has now been archived, although some information on the flu vaccination campaign can still be found online. The HHS had allegedly reviewed the campaign and decided it would not continue, as reported in NPR.

The purpose of the campaign is to inform the general public that vaccines still provide the best protection against the common flu. Although vaccines do not necessarily prevent the flu and individuals can certainly get the flu even after vaccination, the rate of complications like infection of the lung are significantly diminished, and symptoms from flu for those vaccinated tend to be much milder when compared to those who get the flu and are unvaccinated.

The removal of this important campaign could not come at a more inopportune time. Flu cases are the highest they have been in the last decade, with at least 29 million flu illnesses this season, 370,000 hospitalizations and 16,000 deaths, according to the CDC.

The message also remains indispensable given the current Texas measles outbreak, with 58 reported cases. Although the majority of cases have been reported in those unvaccinated, at least four individuals claim that they have received the measles vaccine. The flu vaccination campaign would help educate people on a common question- why are people who are vaccinated getting measles?

The timely infographic demonstrates that immunization does not necessarily prevent individuals from getting the infection, but rather provides protection and makes symptoms more tame or mild. This critical information is necessary so the public understands the efficacy of vaccines and why vaccinated patients can still get infected.

Terminating the campaign also comes at a time when thousands of probationary workers in the most influential federal health care sectors have been laid off, including personnel at the HHS, NIH and CDC. As I explained recently in Forbes, these public health experts are critical in protecting and safeguarding health for Americans and individuals all around the world. These workers have been instrumental in carrying out groundbreaking research that have helped discover cures and vaccines. They have been indispensable in containing deadly infectious diseases, in developing key tests that help us identify various diseases and help communicate important public health information so all of us can stay safe and healthy.

It has been only one month into the Trump presidency, and science and public health have been under constant fire. Foreign aid to help fight important diseases like Malaria, TB and HIV has been curtailed. Trump’s Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been confirmed by the Senate, a well-known vaccine skeptic that has repeatedly spread misinformation that vaccines cause autism. And now, vital public health information is being taken down from websites, threatening the public’s ability to understand public health and make important informed decisions about vaccines.

2025 represents a time of enormous public health challenges, from threats of the bird flu, to the common flu surging to outbreaks of Measles and Ebola being reported across the globe. This is not a time for putting the brakes on public health. If anything, the Trump administration should be putting their foot on the accelerator to ensure there is adequate staff to address all these public health issues. If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything, it is that there must be transparency and a wealth of important information accessible to everyone so people can make decisions to protect themselves and their families.

Firing healthcare personnel and purging public health websites will do nobody any good.