The Alphabet Agencies that Help Keep America Safe

We so often use their initials rather than their full names, but these local and global organizations are scientific agencies that work to help keep our food, water, air, land, and bodies safe and healthy. We should not abbreviate their importance in our minds, nor allow them to be manipulated by politicians.

The five agencies of concern are within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These vital organizations have generally operated free from political biases whether Democrats or Republicans are elected. Making these agencies extensions of a political party can call their findings into question and make their motives and conclusions suspicious.

Since January, three changes have made these organizations less effective in serving us.

1. They are now political: While a new administration usually replaces the heads of cabinet departments, the career professionals in the agency usually keep their jobs no matter which party is in power. Now, even staff members are being fired, not based on performance or science or new information but based on what the Republican administration “believes.”

a. Words like “gay”, and “transgender” are being removed since the new administration has decreed that there are only two genders. This makes writing about “AIDS”, for example, almost impossible to do effectively.

b. During the pandemic in 2020, the CDC was asked to “stop doing so much testing.”This was an effort to make the pandemic seem like it was “going away.”

Over 1.1 million people died in the US alone and 7 million worldwide.

2. Communications with the public have been shut down. The frequent communications of these agencies with each other, with members of the public, and with the global healthcare community keep people informed on standards, new treatments research important to families.

a. On January 21, 2025 the acting head of HHS, Dr. Dorothy Fink, sent a memo to all 13 of its Operating Divisions including the CDC, FDA and the NIH to “refrain from most external communications, such as issuing documents, guidance or notices to the public unless it was approved by a “presidential appointee.”

3. New administration leaders have little knowledge or leadership experiences in the area they lead. Since these organizations are based on science and research, political biases would undermine the research results.

a. For example: Choosing Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services and in charge of promoting vaccines, is contrary to keeping the public safe from dangerous diseases like measles, polio, rubella and mumps. He wrote articles regarding how vaccines kill more people than they help, which is not true. Kennedy recently cancelled a meeting at which decisions essential for preparing the vaccine for the upcoming flu season would be made, thus leaving the pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccine without direction.

4. World Health Organization (WHO)
Another alphabet agency but not managed by the U. S. Administration. The Administration instead dropped all participation with the WHO. Supported by 193 countries, the WHO is a specialized health agency of the United Nations. It works worldwide to keep the world safe, and prepare for emergencies. They identify and manage health risks and support efforts to contain disease outbreaks.

WHO detects, monitors, and responds to emerging health threats, pandemics, and diseases of importance around the world. By withdrawing from the organization, our public health officials will no longer have access to WHO’s data which will make it more difficult to protect us from these dangers.As American citizens travel globally, information on emerging threats is critically important

• Currently a “mystery illness” is reported in Africa that kills people within 48 hours.
• WHO alerted the world to the avian flu and COVID 19.
• They distributed a polio vaccine in Gaza to stop an outbreak, 25 years after polio was supposedly eradicated.

The United States has always been a valuable scientific partner across the world. Our citizens know that they are getting the best information that science can give them at the time. Politicizing science reduces our ability to understand topics and plan for the future.

Below is a description of each agency taken from agency websites 2025.

Department of Health and Human Services

• There are 13 supporting agencies under the HHS umbrella. 80,000 are employed. This Department will lose about 5200 people with the firing of all probationary employees (this does not mean they were on performance probation). These are individuals who may have been on the job a short period of time or may be transitioning from one position to another. The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.

FDA: Food and Drug Administration

• Responsible for protecting and promoting public health by controlling food safety, tobacco products, caffeine products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs, vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation devices, cosmetics and animal and veterinary food, drugs and medical devices.

EPA: Environmental Protection Agency

• The Clean Air and Clean Water Act, Superfund Sites, Pesticides, and many others are all part of its jurisdiction. Conducts environmental assessment, research, education and maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws.

CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

• Protects Americans from health, safety and security threats both foreign and domestic. Wherever diseases may arise or if they are chronic or acute, curable or preventable.

NIH: National Institutes of Health

• They apply knowledge of living systems to reduce illness and disability. Over 88% of this is done by awarding grants to various research organizations to study human growth, biological effects of environmental contaminants, mental, addictive and physical disorders.

Conclusions

Objectivity wherever the research may take it are hallmarks of legitimate and valid investigations. These agencies and our global participation should be above reproach. We need to go back to the time when we were a valuable partner and, equally as important, where our own citizens know that they are getting the best information that science can give them. Scientific knowledge is never “a lie.” It merely reflects what we know to be true at a point in time.

Author: Rose Mary C.