In this episode of The Stakes, host Brad Rourke talks with Kettering Foundation David Mathews Democracy Fellow Kathleen Sebelius, former secretary of Health and Human Services and former governor of Kansas, about the erosion of America’s public health infrastructure. With measles cases at their highest level in decades and childhood vaccination rates falling, Sebelius argues that political interference in vaccine policy and weakened federal leadership are putting Americans at risk. “We need to go back to the point where we don’t play politics with public health,” she says. “We follow the science in public health.”
Sebelius also describes the consequences of deep staffing cuts and leadership vacancies across HHS, which affects services from food safety and medical research to Medicare, Medicaid, and childcare. The loss of experienced federal workers, she warns, could take a generation to repair. “HHS touches Americans from birth to death,” Sebelius says. Weakening those services “has a real life and death impact on Americans, and it’s going to take a long time to rebuild.”
