After 33 years at the C.D.C., this doctor has a message for the future.
 | By Alexandra Sifferlin Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
Over the last year, many people rewatched the 2011 film "Contagion," which chronicles the fallout of a pandemic. While the film is fiction, Kate Winslet's character — a disease detective at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — was modeled after a real outbreak investigator: Dr. Anne Schuchat. |
"Public service is a privilege. For me, it has also been a joy." Those are the words of Schuchat, the second in command of the C.D.C. who is retiring from the agency after 33 years. |
With the departure of Schuchat, the C.D.C. is losing a powerhouse in public health and, specifically, a specialist in responding to outbreaks. Schuchat began at the agency as a "disease detective," part of the agency's Epidemic Intelligence Service that investigates outbreaks. She's since helped lead the nation through outbreaks like the 2009 H1N1 outbreak and the 2001 bioterrorist anthrax response. She's worked on global vaccine trials for Ebola in West Africa. |
When I learned that Schuchat would be retiring, I reached out to her to see what she might want to say to our readers after more than a year dealing with Covid-19. This was the C.D.C.'s biggest challenge perhaps since its founding, and the occasion for its most public scrutiny. |
"The past year and a half left many among our ranks exhausted, threatened, saddened and sometimes sidelined," she writes in a guest essay today. "The Covid-19 pandemic is not the first time the U.S. public health system has had to surge well beyond its capacity, but with the worst pandemic in a century and, initially, a heavily partisan political context, the virus collided with a system suffering from decades of underinvestment." |
Schuchat makes a strong case for better funding for public health, not only in emergency scenarios but also to prevent future pandemics. And she makes a plea to young Americans to consider a career in public service — which she has found so fulfilling. |
"Our world needs you," she says. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com |
Contact Us
If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment