'America’s Health First': A Misnomer

On July 7, Tom Price, MD, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced the appointment of Brenda Fitzgerald, MD, as the 17th director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To this position, Dr Fitzgerald brings her experience as Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health, a role in which she championed infant health and survival, tobacco control, and obesity prevention. Other significant choices of individuals to head agencies that affect the public’s health include the recent nomination of Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, as surgeon general, and reappointment of Francis Collins, MD, PhD, as National Institutes of Health director. While such choices appear to bode well for public health, how well these agencies and others will be funded for programs affecting public health both inside and outside the United States matters enormously. What has the Trump administration signaled about its intentions in its proposed budget?