WHN Statement on the Dismantling of U.S. Public Health Institutions

The World Health Network (WHN) expresses grave concern over the ongoing dismantling of core public health institutions in the United States. In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has taken actions that represent not a shift in policy but a collapse of institutional function and purpose.

Among the most alarming developments:

• The firing of all members of the U.S. vaccine advisory committee, eliminating expert oversight at a time of ongoing global infectious disease threats.
• The dismantling of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), undermining protections for millions of workers.
• The suspension and redirection of key NIH research programs, including those essential for monitoring and understanding emergent diseases and long-term health conditions, such as Long COVID.

We urge the public to be clear-eyed: those carrying out these actions present themselves as champions of public health, using familiar language while pursuing goals that fundamentally contradict the mission of protecting life and well-being. This is not public health. It is its inversion. Using the mantle of health to advance policies of harm does not legitimize those actions—it deepens the betrayal.

These are not policy disagreements, these are acts of institutional destruction. The agencies responsible for protecting the health of hundreds of millions are being rendered nonfunctional or repurposed to support disinformation and anti-science agendas.

This represents an unprecedented breach of public trust, professional standards, and ethical governance. The consequences will be global. The U.S. has played a central role in disease surveillance, research, and response worldwide. The loss of scientific capacity and the promotion of falsehoods under the mantle of health policy endangers lives not only in the U.S. but across borders.

WHN was founded to stand for science, for transparency, and for the protection of human life. We call on public health professionals, scientists, civic leaders, and the global community to:

1. Recognize the magnitude of what is occurring—not as politics, but as an assault on the foundations of public health.
2. Organize against the normalization of disinformation and institutional collapse.
3. Protect the people and the healthcare professionals now left exposed by the void in public health leadership.

We invite the HHS to correct its course on this matter. WHN will continue to stay alert, defending science, educating, and supporting those working to safeguard health in this moment of crisis.