EDITOR’S NOTE: I started following Your Local Epidemiologist during the pandemic. I’m always looking for reliable, knowledge experts in their field that are also excellent writers/communicators … this is one of those people that provides vetted, researched scientific, medical information. The list of trusted sources provided below should be saved, and her advice below about avoiding the CDC website (or for that matter, several government websites) should be heeded. From the vaccine finder tool being disabled to a media bias “fake news exposed” on the White House website, the government’s websites can no longer be trusted to provide accurate, unbiased information.
Your Starter Guide to Trustworthy Science Online – Some reliable voices & helpful sharing habits
By ‘Your Local Epidemiologist’ (YLE), founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist (11-21-25)
(reprinted from her free email newletter*…)
¶ I was on my way to interview for CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS)—the two-year training program for “disease detectives.” For people in my world, EIS is the dream job. These were the folks who jumped onto planes with 24 hours’ notice, parachuted into outbreaks, and pieced together scientific mysteries fast enough for Americans—and communities around the world—to live safer, healthier lives.
Walking onto campus that day, I felt as if I were stepping into the beating heart of public service. Full on electric. People moved with purpose. Conversations were about problems that mattered to families, kids, clinics, and communities. It was alive with urgency, curiosity, advancement, and the shared belief and optimism that good science could make life better for all of us.
I didn’t end up accepting the EIS position. Life took me in a different direction. But about 10 years later, I returned to CDC as a scientific communication advisor to two directors during a period when the agency was struggling through the pandemic. Even before Covid-19, the system was weakened by chronic underfunding, outdated infrastructure, bureaucratic bottlenecks, rising political pressure, and relentless falsehoods. The pandemic pushed the CDC to its limits, and Americans suffered because of it.
Advising CDC then felt like caring for a critically ill patient. You stabilize what you can. You celebrate tiny signs of recovery. You push. You brace. And, like any clinician staring at a body in crisis, you begin to notice every detail, every connection. I saw the system’s complexity and started asking not just how to keep it alive, but what it would take to make it resilient, responsive, and worthy of the trust Americans place in it.
Recovery takes time, and CDC was making headway. But that progress was abruptly undone. Over the past 10 months, the agency has been pushed onto life support amid escalating political interference. Leadership was purged, crucial scientific programs were dismantled, and irreplaceable, hard‑won knowledge was drained as experts were fired or left en masse.
And, now, part of CDC has flatlined.
Recently, a directive from HHS forced the agency to publish scientifically false claims about vaccines and autism—claims the agency itself and scientists across the world had spent decades investigating, and study after study has shown no link. This wasn’t a debate or a misunderstanding, and no new data was presented. This was political actors overriding science in a place where accuracy, integrity, credibility, transparency, and honesty literally saves lives.
The damage doesn’t stay neatly contained to one webpage or one topic. When any part of the system is forced to publish something false, it immediately weakens the credibility and integrity of every other part that depends on shared trust. Hesitation, doubt, and confusion spread fast. Just yesterday, I was talking with colleagues responding to the infant botulism outbreak, and they asked, “𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙖 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙝 𝙛𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 ?”
𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪 ?It’s getting harder and harder to know what is data-driven and what is spun, and now the CDC website has entered the arena.
There are parts of CDC I still trust, and there remains an important distinction between political operatives and the scientists doing the real work. In other words, there is still information there that I trust only because I have firsthand insight from friends and colleagues I speak with every week. That’s a privileged position to be in, and it’s not advice the general public can realistically rely on.
𝙎𝙤, 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤 ?At this time, I suggest the general public avoid the CDC website.
-If you do go to the CDC website, avoid anything on vaccines, reproductive health, environmental science, or health equity.
-Data systems are still largely under the control of states and CDC scientists. Flu and wastewater data, for example, are good to go.
-Find trustworthy navigators outside the federal government, such as AAP, ACOG, and healthychildren.org, as well as many credible scientific communicators. T͟h͟e͟ E͟v͟i͟d͟e͟n͟c͟e͟ C͟o͟l͟l͟e͟c͟t͟i͟v͟e͟ p͟u͟t͟ t͟o͟g͟e͟t͟h͟e͟r͟ a͟ c͟o͟m͟p͟r͟e͟h͟e͟n͟s͟i͟v͟e͟ l͟i͟s͟t͟ o͟f͟ s͟c͟i͟e͟n͟t͟i͟f͟i͟c͟ c͟o͟m͟m͟u͟n͟i͟c͟a͟t͟o͟r͟s͟ a͟n͟d͟ o͟r͟g͟a͟n͟i͟z͟a͟t͟i͟o͟n͟s͟ f͟o͟r͟ y͟o͟u͟ i͟n͟ t͟h͟e͟ l͟i͟n͟k͟e͟d͟ s͟i͟t͟e͟.
The good news is that the level of mobilization outside the federal government—by health systems, medical societies, researchers, local health leaders, and entire professional communities—is extraordinary. We can’t replace what a fully functioning CDC provides, but many people are stepping up, coordinating, and building the scaffolding we need to navigate this moment with clarity. There are also so many CDC career employees flagging falsehoods and interferences for those of us on the outside, and trying to hold the line.
As this evolves, I’ll keep you updated on what I’m relying on, what should be ignored, and what requires nuance. Keep sending me your questions, concerns, and confusion. It’s the only way I know how to equip you with the information needed.
Bottom line: It’s hard to overstate what this moment represents. Ideology is now overriding evidence—the critical information parents, families, and communities rely on to stay healthy—at the nation’s once vibrant and leading public health agency. This is a sad and truly devastating place for our country to be.
What we need now is collective action: refusing to let falsehoods prevail by building new pathways to protect, educate, and empower one another. It will be messy, even painful. But I believe we can get through this, and I hope we can do it without more lives lost.
*YLE is a public health newsletter that reaches over 400,000 people in more than 132 countries, with one goal: to translate the ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. (https://tinyurl.com/YLE-Substack-direct-link)