Can the CDC Be Trusted With Our Health?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of new focus on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a U.S. government agency with about 11,000 employees (compared to the FDA‘s 18,000 employees).

Still, few are aware of the existence of the CDC Foundation, a separate, nonprofit organization, established by Congress in 1992 to seek private-sector donations and public-private partnerships.

To those concerned about conflicts of interest, “public-private partnerships,” which mix taxpayer funds with industry’s, are likely the biggest red flags. To avoid such conflicts the CDC foundation says it relies “on CDC’s governance and policies and its high standards of scientific integrity to guide every partnership we build,” and that projects are given a thorough review and approval.

Suspicious Funding

The CDC Foundation sounds well-funded. According to Netsuite, an Oracle website, Wells Fargo, SC Johnson, a consumer product manufacturer, and Kaiser Permanente each donated one million dollars in 2020 and Facebook pledged a $10 million match in donations.