To Everyone Who Has Served at CDC: Thank You
You changed the world for the better. The data shows it.
I recently wrote about public health’s successes, in response to those who don’t understand or diminish the accomplishments. Today, I want to speak about and to current and former CDC staff, who have now survived an attack on the CDC building, live with constant uncertainty about losing their jobs, and many of whom are on furlough due to the government shutdown.
Their work matters. It has saved and prolonged millions of lives. The numbers tell an important story that is hard to grasp, but that we urgently need to convey.
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Dear Current and Former CDC Staff,
45 million.
45 MILLION.
45 million years.
You have prevented an estimated 45 million years of life lost to disease and disability over the past quarter century in the United States.
That’s 45 million people living one year longer or one year healthier.
Or 5 million people living 9 years longer or healthier.
Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) measure both premature death and years lived with disability. Your work has prevented disability and death from infectious disease, chronic disease, environmental toxins, and injuries. These are conservative estimates based on Global Burden of Disease data from 1999 to 2024 and risk-attributable burden analyses.
These are more than numbers. Behind every number is a story – a mom, dad, grandparent, friend, child and neighbor – who lived longer and/or healthier because of your efforts.
Infectious disease
Childhood immunization programs led by CDC have averted 6 to 8 million DALYs. Pneumococcal disease has fallen by more than 90 percent since 1998. Parents no longer watch their children die from diseases that killed many just a generation ago.
The HPV vaccine you championed has prevented 1.5 million DALYs. Cervical precancer rates have dropped by more than 70 percent among vaccinated women. Thousands of young women will never hear the words “you have cancer” because you did your job.
COVID-19 strained every system we built. Thanks in large part to your efforts, health workers delivered 675 million vaccine doses – a huge success that prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths. That’s 10 million DALYs averted during the worst pandemic in a century. Critics forget that public health efforts prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths, or more.
Your HIV prevention work cut annual diagnoses by 7 percent from 2015 to 2019. You saved 2.5 million DALYs from HIV.
Chronic disease
Smoking rates fell from 23 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2019. That decline prevented 5 million DALYs. CDC’s Tips from Former Smokers campaign triggered 16 million quit attempts and a million sustained quits, saving $7.3 billion in healthcare costs and thousands of lives.
The five-year Million Hearts initiative has prevented tens of thousands of heart attacks and strokes. The diabetes prevention program enrolled 300,000 participants and cut progression to diabetes by 58 percent among high-risk adults. Colorectal cancer screening rates climbed from 54 percent to more than 68 percent, and mortality fell.
These programs didn’t run themselves. You helped build them, fought for them, and made them work.
Environmental health
Childhood blood lead levels have dropped by more than 94 percent since 1976. Your work led to the elimination of lead from gasoline and paint. You have prevented 3.5 million DALYs and protected millions of children from cognitive impairment. That work improved health and mental health across an entire generation.
Safe drinking water programs have reached more than 90 percent of Americans. Waterborne disease became rare instead of routine. You prevented a million DALYs through water and sanitation systems most people never see.
Why this matters now
Public health works in the background. When we succeed, nothing happens. An outbreak doesn’t spread. A child doesn’t die from a preventable disease. A parent doesn’t succumb to a heart attack. Success is invisible.
Because of that invisibility, we’re a victim of our own success.
When critics ask what public health has accomplished, show them this data – and the faces and the lives behind it. You prevented tens of million years of life lost to disease and disability. You saved trillions in healthcare costs. You made America healthier.
Some days felt futile – I know because I felt the frustration when I served as CDC director. You analyzed data that didn’t lead to the actions it suggested. You fought for budgets and programs that got cut. But the cumulative effect of your work – the laboratory tests, the surveillance systems, the vaccine programs, the health communications, the outbreak investigations – has prevented suffering on a scale that’s hard to imagine.
CDC faces unprecedented challenges, from firings of dedicated staff to dangerously slashed budgets. But your work matters more than ever.
You changed the world for the better. The data shows it. That can never be reversed, although this administration’s actions threaten our current and future safety and health. Thank you for your service and your dedication. Thank you for making public health’s invisible successes possible.
Dr. Tom Frieden is author of The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives – Including Your Own.
The book draws on Frieden’s four decades leading life-saving programs in the U.S. and globally. Frieden led New York City’s control of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, supported India’s efforts that prevented more than 3 million tuberculosis deaths, and led efforts that reduced smoking in NYC.
As Director of the CDC (2009-2017), he led the agency’s response that ended the Ebola epidemic. Dr. Frieden is President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, partnering locally and globally to find and scale solutions to the world’s deadliest health threats.
Named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, he has published more than 300 scientific articles on improving health. His experience is, for the first time, translated into practical approaches for community and personal health in The Formula for Better Health.