The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services,and is headquartered in Atlanta,Georgia.
The Florida Department of Health is responsible for protecting the public health and safety of the residents and visitors of the state of Florida. It is a cabinet-level agency of the state government,headed by a state surgeon general who reports to the governor. The department has its headquarters in Tallahassee.
Jared Evan Moskowitz is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 23rd congressional district since 2023. As a member of the Democratic Party,Moskowitz served on the Broward County Commission from 2022 to 2023 and as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2021. Before his appointment to the Florida Division of Emergency Management,he served in the Florida House of Representatives,representing the Coral Springs-Parkland area in northern Broward County from 2012 to 2019.
Robert Ray Redfield Jr. is an American virologist who served as the Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry from 2018 to 2021.
Measles vaccine protects against becoming infected with measles. Nearly all of those who do not develop immunity after a single dose develop it after a second dose. When the rate of vaccination within a population is greater than 92%,outbreaks of measles typically no longer occur;however,they may occur again if the rate of vaccination decreases. The vaccine's effectiveness lasts many years. It is unclear if it becomes less effective over time. The vaccine may also protect against measles if given within a couple of days after exposure to measles.
Martin Adel Makary is a British-American surgeon,professor,author,and medical commentator. He practices surgical oncology and gastrointestinal laparoscopic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital,is Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine,and is the chief of Islet Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins.
Baptist Health South Florida is a faith-based not-for-profit healthcare organization and clinical care network in Miami-Dade,Broward,and Palm Beach counties. Baptist Health has 11 hospitals and in excess of 100 physician practices and outpatient facilities.
Ashley Brooke Moody is an American attorney and politician serving as the attorney general of Florida since January 2019. Moody previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney and a circuit court judge in Hillsborough County.
Randy Fine is an American Republican politician,activist,and former gambling industry executive currently serving in the Florida Senate for the 19th district since 2024. He previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2016–2024. His district covers southern Brevard County.
Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000 by the World Health Organization due to the success of vaccination efforts. However,it continues to be reintroduced by international travelers,and in recent years,anti-vaccination sentiment has allowed for the reemergence of measles outbreaks.
On December 31,2019,China announced the discovery of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. The first American case was reported on January 20,and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared a public health emergency on January 31. Restrictions were placed on flights arriving from China,but the initial U.S. response to the pandemic was otherwise slow in terms of preparing the healthcare system,stopping other travel,and testing. The first known American deaths occurred in February and in late February President Donald Trump proposed allocating $2.5 billion to fight the outbreak. Instead,Congress approved $8.3 billion with only Senator Rand Paul and two House representatives voting against,and Trump signed the bill,the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act,2020,on March 6. Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. The government also purchased large quantities of medical equipment,invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to assist. By mid-April,disaster declarations were made by all states and territories as they all had increasing cases. A second wave of infections began in June,following relaxed restrictions in several states,leading to daily cases surpassing 60,000. By mid-October,a third surge of cases began;there were over 200,000 new daily cases during parts of December 2020 and January 2021.
On March 1,2020,the U.S. state of Florida officially reported its first two COVID-19 cases in Manatee and Hillsborough counties. There is evidence,however,that community spread of COVID-19 first began in Florida much earlier,perhaps as early as the first week of January,with as many as 171 people in Florida who had shown symptoms now identified with COVID-19,prior to receiving confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By March 11,the CDC saw evidence to conclude that community spread of the virus had occurred within the state.
President Donald Trump's administration communicated in various ways during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States,including via social media,interviews,and press conferences with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Opinion polling conducted in mid-April 2020 indicated that less than half of Americans trusted health information provided by Trump and that they were more inclined to trust local government officials,state government officials,the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci.
The wearing of non-medical face masks in public to lessen the transmission of COVID-19 in the United States was first recommended by the CDC on April 3,2020,as supplemental to hygiene and appropriate social distancing. Throughout the pandemic,various states,counties,and municipalities have issued health orders requiring the wearing of non-medical face coverings —such as cloth masks —in spaces and businesses accessible to the public,especially when physical distancing is not possible.
During his first term as president of the United States (2017–2021),Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly politicized science by pressuring or overriding health and science agencies to change their reporting and recommendations so as to conform to his policies and public comments. This was particularly true with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic,but also included suppressing research on climate change and weakening or eliminating environmental regulations.
Rochelle Paula Walensky is an American physician-scientist who served as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023 and served as the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in her capacity as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2021 to 2023. On May 5,2023,she announced her resignation,effective June 30,2023. Prior to her appointment at the CDC,she had served as the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Walensky is an expert on HIV/AIDS.
Martin Kulldorff is a Swedish biostatistician. He was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2003 until his dismissal in 2024. He is a member of the US Food and Drug Administration's Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee and a former member of the Vaccine Safety Subgroup of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michael Joseph Mina is an American epidemiologist,immunologist and physician. He was formerly an assistant professor of Epidemiology &Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health,assistant Professor of Pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital,Harvard Medical School,and currently Chief Medical Officer at eMed. and Chief Medical and Science Officer at Oncodea.
Scott Andrew Rivkees is an American physician-scientist and pediatric endocrinologist,who served as State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health of Florida from June 2019 to September 2021. The majority of Rivkees' tenure coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ron DeSantis has served as the 46th governor of Florida since January 8,2019. A member of the Republican Party,he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Andrew Gillum in the 2018 Florida gubernatorial election. As governor,DeSantis resisted taking many of the measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 that various other state governments implemented,such as face-mask mandates,stay-at-home orders,and vaccination requirements. During the pandemic,Florida experienced above-average economic growth. DeSantis cut state-government spending,which,combined with federal stimulus payments and high sales-tax revenue,led to the largest budget surplus in Florida history. He engaged in recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole,and oversaw the passage of the controversial Parental Rights in Education Act. He was reelected in a landslide in the 2022 Florida gubernatorial election;his 19.4% margin of victory over Charlie Crist was the state's largest in 40 years. He has generally governed as a conservative.
