The Unraveling of Public Health: How Policy Decisions Fuel a Resurgence of Preventable Diseases
The United States is now in its seventh year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a period marked by a concerning and systematic weakening of the nation’s public health systems. Over the past year, this decline has intensified under the current administration, marked by a significant shift away from evidence-based practices and a concerning embrace of anti-vaccine sentiment within public health leadership. A key turning point has been the removal of scientific oversight and the dismissal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). This has effectively severed the nation’s ties with established global safety standards and created a fertile environment for the resurgence of preventable infectious diseases.
The repercussions of these policy choices are now demonstrably evident across a wide spectrum of infectious illnesses. The United States is currently experiencing its twelfth major wave of COVID-19, with transmission rates largely unchecked. Current estimates from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) suggest that approximately 260 million SARS-CoV-2 infections occurred in the United States during 2025, impacting roughly 76 percent of the population. This widespread transmission has resulted in an estimated 13 to 52 million new cases of Long COVID and a level of excess mortality comparable to the nation’s leading causes of death.
According to modeling conducted by the PMC, COVID-19 is estimated to have caused between 81,000 and 175,000 excess deaths in 2025 alone. Even at the lower end of this range, the death toll rivals or exceeds the annual mortality burdens of chronic kidney disease, influenza and pneumonia, and diabetes. This places COVID-19 as the seventh or eighth leading cause of death in the United States.
Alarmingly, the immense scale of COVID-19-related mortality is largely obscured from public view. While the 2025-26 influenza season has garnered significant media and public attention due to approximately 10,000 deaths through mid-January, the annualized excess mortality from COVID-19 surpasses this figure by more than ten-fold. This disparity highlights how the normalization of the pandemic has rendered a level of disease and death socially acceptable that would be unthinkable for recognized endemic threats. This silence reflects a fundamental breakdown in public health strategy, allowing the virus to circulate freely, disable millions, and establish a permanently elevated baseline of mortality.
While the twelfth major COVID-19 wave peaked in early 2026 with daily infections exceeding one million, the most concerning trend is the relentless increase in cumulative infections. By early 2026, the average American had accumulated more than five lifetime SARS-CoV-2 infections. This repeated exposure is driving a severe degradation of population-level immunity, a process now detailed by research from the National Institutes of Health RECOVER Initiative.
Studies published in January 2026 reveal that Long COVID is characterized by persistent immune activation, T-cell exhaustion, and chronic inflammation. Individuals with three or more SARS-CoV-2 infections face a significantly higher risk – three to ten times greater – of developing Long COVID. This repeated immunological injury is creating vulnerabilities to opportunistic and latent infections. Clinical reports indicate a resurgence of latent tuberculosis and Epstein-Barr virus following COVID-19, alongside an increased incidence of shingles, often linked to declining immune surveillance. Furthermore, COVID-19 pneumonia has been shown to heighten susceptibility to severe secondary bacterial infections, creating a dangerous synergistic effect.
This biological erosion of immunity is occurring in tandem with a deliberate dismantling of preventive health policies. Following the dismissal of the ACIP and the overhaul of the childhood immunization schedule in January 2026, which reduced the universally recommended number of vaccines from 17 to 11, pediatric protection has sharply deteriorated. As of January 10, 2026, only 7.6 percent of children were up-to-date on the current COVID-19 vaccine. This has led to a concerning decline in vaccination rates for other crucial childhood diseases, including measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP), with coverage falling below herd immunity thresholds in 39 states and in more than 75 percent of US counties.
Beyond the immediate health consequences, the economic burden of mass infection and disability is substantial. Estimates suggest that a single case of Long COVID can cost between $5,084 and $11,646 annually, with lost productivity accounting for over 90 percent of this burden. The societal cost of Long COVID is projected to be between $2.01 and $6.56 billion per year, a figure expected to rise as infections continue.
This unfolding crisis is not accidental. The systematic dismantling of public health infrastructure represents a direct threat to the right to life, prioritizing profit and political expediency over the well-being of the population. The consequences disproportionately affect the working class, accelerating declines in life expectancy. Addressing this requires the independent political mobilization of the working class to restore public health institutions grounded in scientific evidence, ensuring they serve the collective needs of society.
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