Infectious disease threats test public health

Driving the news: Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told reporters Thursday during a roundtable with ranchers in Texas that the CDC had activated an emergency plan for potential human infestations of New World screwworm.

• The USDA is leading the response to animal infestations. Officials say they have detected four cases in calves in Texas and one in a dog in New Mexico.
• Rollins argued the Biden administration failed to prepare for a response after the threat re-emerged in Panama in 2023 and spread north. She denied it had anything to do with DOGE cuts and said the USDA has "120 full-time staff focused on this issue — a 1,000% increase."

Yes, but: Harvard Medical School professor Aaron Kesselheim tells Axios the DOGE cuts that removed USAID and USDA monitoring programs are "direct contributors to the current problem" and greatly affect "our ability to respond to it and mitigate future impacts."

• American Public Health Association CEO Georges Benjamin tells Axios the cuts are "catastrophic" to both the USDA and responses to disease outbreaks like bird flu, which he says "is still not being properly managed."

The other side: When asked for comment on the DOGE cuts, a USDA spokesperson said there were no staff cuts affecting the screwworm response and that President Trump had delivered on $1.3 billion in federal support.

• This includes "the 100 million weekly sterile fly production from our facility in Panama, construction, and operation of the new sterile fly production facility in Texas, and research into other new responses."

State of play: The CDC's emergency measures came as infectious disease experts briefed reporters on preparations for major events this year, with respiratory pathogens including COVID and measles among the biggest concerns.

• Krutika Kuppalli, an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and one of the briefing speakers, tells Axios New World screwworm, Ebola and hantavirus are very different threats that share a common theme.
• Early detection and response "are far less costly than managing a large outbreak or agricultural crisis after it occurs," she says.

• Benjamin says that health officials face "significant challenges" from earlier funding cuts in responding to all three threats and that it's likely the U.S. will see "at least" one Ebola case — as it did during the 2013-2016 outbreak that resulted in the death of a Dallas man.

What we're watching: Kesselheim says cuts proposed in Trump's 2027 budget "as a group are unprecedented and would devastate essential research and government capacity to respond to emerging infectious diseases as well as other threats to the health of the American people."

• The budget proposes cutting $5 billion from the National Institutes of Health, $15.8 billion from the Department of Health and Human Services, and over $100 million from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which the administration said "pushed radical gender ideology onto children."
• While Congress would have to approve Trump's budget, personnel cuts have diminished disease surveillance capacity at federal, state and local levels, Benjamin says. Less funding means health officials are not "anywhere near" as prepared as they were previously.
• The Trump administration argues such funding reductions would eliminate duplicative programs and improve efficiency.

The bottom line: Experts say emerging disease threats are inevitable, but the speed of detection and response may determine whether outbreaks remain manageable.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement from USDA.