Dr. Stephanie Psaki

Mpox threatened the US first in 2022, killing 58. But the story was different in 2024.

Distinguished Senior Fellows @nikkiromanik.bsky.social and @spsaki.bsky.social
write that "the two mpox responses in the US highlight a public health truism—when preparedness works, it is often invisible."

Opinion | Debunking the 'Coercion' Argument in the Abortion Pill Debate Restricting mifepristone access doesn't protect women from abuse

In an #OpEd, @darakass.com, @spsaki.bsky.social, and Liz Tobin-Tyler, JD, MA, all of @brownpublichealth.bsky.social, explain what the research actually shows about reproductive coercion.

Read now: www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/seco...

In #HealthAffairs, our Senior Adviser @bethcameron-dc.bsky.social co-authored w/ @spsaki.bsky.social how we should protect Americans in a #BirdFlu pandemic.

From rebuilding surveillance to restoring #mRNA vaccine programs.

Read more ⤵️
www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...

Pandemics are a choice The end of pandemics is within reach. Why aren't we acting like it?

"Advances have made it possible to detect, treat, and stop the pathogens most likely to sweep across continents and cause widespread death," Senior Fellow @spsaki.bsky.social writes in @vox.com. "The question now is not whether we can prevent the next pandemic, but whether we will."

The Real Way to Boost Birth Rates Politicians need to make parenting more affordable and more compatible with working life, writes Stephanie Psaki.

The birth rate is dropping in the U.S. because Americans can’t afford to have families. Pushing women out of the workforce will only make that worse.

New piece in TIME:

time.com/7328698/wome...

$10 Million in Contraceptives Have Been Destroyed on Orders From Trump Officials

Pay attention! They are testing health policies internationally before imposing them in the U.S.

They falsely say that contraceptives cause abortion to justify destroying them.

They are coming for contraception in the U.S. next (actually, already).

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

A suspected Ebola outbreak is occurring in DRC. This is bad at any time! But it’s particularly worrisome now when US capacity to detect and respond to deadly biothreats has been purposefully dismantled.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Here’s What Real Pro-Family Policy Looks Like We need to stop treating 'pro-family' as a culture war slogan and start treating Americans with freedom and respect.

“Pro-family” policy requires freedom, support, and respect for people’s choices.

These are not radical ideas. They’re deeply American ones.

New piece in Time with Jess Marcella:

time.com/7310023/real...

No One in the White House Knows How to Stop Ebola We had a playbook for handling biothreats. Then Trump pushed out the people who knew how to use it.

In the last 6 months this administration has dismantled a system built over decades to keep Americans safe from biological threats.

@bethcameron-dc.bsky.social, Jon Finer and I describe what it takes to keep these threats out:

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Hundreds of thousands of US taxpayer-funded vaccine doses may expire, lawmakers say Hundreds of thousands of doses of mpox vaccine that the United States had promised to send to African nations are in danger of going to waste, dozens of congressional Democrats said in a letter to the U.S. State Department.

Hundreds of thousands of doses of mpox vaccine that the United States had promised to send to African nations are in danger of going to waste, dozens of congressional Democrats said in a letter to the U.S. State Department on Wednesday.

STAGGERING: This new study of 133 countries is the first to estimate the impact of all USAID’s work. In 2 decades, it has saved *92M* lives. Current cuts, if not reversed, are forecast to cost up to *14M* lives thru 2030. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

They’re forming a CDC workgroup to decide which line on this graph looks better and their answer may surprise you

RFK Jr. says US won’t donate to global vaccine effort Kennedy ripped into Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a video address at its pledging summit.

This is a travesty & a nightmare. The US was a founder of @gavi.org. It lowers global vaccine costs, has vaccinated 1B children, & averted 19M deaths. This pull out will cost 100s of thousands of children's lives a year - and RFK Jr will be personally responsible.
www.politico.com/news/2025/06...

Kennedy Withdraws Funding Pledge to International Vaccine Agency

Gavi works in close partnership (operationally and financially) with governments around the world to distribute life-saving vaccines to children. Their work has saved nearly 20 million lives since 2000.

Kennedy is either misinformed or lying, but either way children will die as a result.

We don’t close military bases in unstable regions and hope for the best—we maintain forward deployment to prevent emergencies. The same logic applies to public health.

New piece in @justsecurity.org about cuts to CDC’s presence around the world, with @nikkiromanik.bsky.social

U.S. Soft Power: Next Steps After the Foreign Aid Withdrawal | Think Global Health A former White House official on the future of advancing strategic interests while saving lives and growing economies

Foreign aid can save lives and ALSO advance U.S. interests in the world. Its not an either/or.

I argued in @thinkglobalhealth.org that foreign aid builds soft power when it is:

✅ Visible
✅ Altruistic
✅ Effective
✅ Aligned with country priorities

There is a new pandemic treaty that'll get ratified at World Health Assembly next week

Its meant to fix lethal gaps we saw during COVID in getting vaccines to poor countries

Unfortunately, as @spsaki.bsky.social and I lay out in @statnews.com, it probably won't do much

But there is a better way

Dropping U.S. Biodefenses: Why Cuts to Federal Health Agencies Make Americans Less Safe The Trump administration's sweeping changes to the Department of Health and Human Services will make the United States highly insecure, not healthy.

New piece I wrote with @bethcameron-dc.bsky.social in @justsecurity.org on how the HHS cuts make Americans less safe (and less healthy).

We lay out some signs that tell us whether the U.S. is prepared for biological threats from all sources. (Hint: It doesn’t look good)

The Daily Blast: “Terrifying”: Trump’s Ominous Moment with RFK on First Measles Death Podcast Episode · The DSR Network · 02/27/2025 · 25m

On The Daily Blast, @gregsargent.bsky.social talked to @spsaki.bsky.social. She explains what we want from public officials at moments like these—and why the anti-vax views of RFK and the cavalier approach to public health add up to a picture that’s “terrifying.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Join us Friday for, The cost of defunding #PEPFAR and the impact on the fight against HIV/AIDS, moderated by @wilmotjames.bsky.social w/ panelist Glenda Gray, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg & @spsaki.bsky.social, @brownpublichealth.bsky.social

Register ⤵️
brown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Authoritarian regimes around the world cheer on dismantling of USAid Elon Musk-led razing of US foreign aid agency led strong-arm rulers in Hungary, Belarus and elsewhere to celebrate

"For authoritarian leaders worldwide, the agency’s dismantling represents a potential retreat of American democratic influence."

It is stunning to see this administration undermine U.S. interests around the world so swiftly and - possibly - irreversibly.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Abolishing USAID Would Contravene U.S. law, the U.S. constitution, and would harm response to current and future outbreaks... A thread.

Senior USAID security officials put on leave after refusing Musk’s DOGE access to agency systems | CNN Politics Two top security officials at the US Agency for International Development were put on administrative leave Saturday night after refusing to allow officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Ef...

NEW: Two top security officials at USAID were put on admin leave Saturday night after refusing to allow officials from Musk’s DOGE to access systems at the agency, even after DOGE personnel threatened to call law enforcement, multiple sources familiar told CNN www.cnn.com/2025/02/02/p...

Given reports of a new Ebola outbreak in DRC, it's definitely time to run the playbook we left behind. The early days in a response will make the difference between a quickly contained Ebola outbreak, or an extended outbreak with spread across borders, loss of life, and billions of $ to contain.

Who is protecting Americans from Marburg right now? The WHO and the CDC coordinated well when faced with viral outbreaks. This is no time to demolish a well-oiled machine.

We left behind a playbook for outbreaks and other biological threats, and public servants are there who know how to use it.

The new administration should let them protect Americans from this threat.