1015 - Unexplained Pauses in CDC Data — Public Health On Call

About this episode:

The CDC has long collected and publicly reported data on infectious diseases, vaccination rates, overdose deaths, and other health topics. But in 2025, many of these datasets inexplicably went dark. In this episode: the importance of real-time data in implementing public health solutions and the potential consequences of these lapses in reporting.

Guests:

Janet Freilich, JD, is a professor at the Boston University School of Law. She writes and teaches in the areas of patent law, intellectual property, information law, and civil procedure.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.

Show links and related content:

Unexplained Pauses in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Surveillance: Erosion of the Public Evidence Base for Health Policy—Annals of Internal Medicine
Dozens of CDC vaccination databases have been frozen under RFK Jr.—Ars Technica
The Changing CDC Website—Public Health On Call (February 2025)

Transcript information:

Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.