Two centuries later, Americans life expectancy is nearly 80 years and infant mortality is rare. Smallpox has been eradicated, and diseases like Heart disease and cancer, once untreatable, can now be managed for years. This amazing transformation is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and it rests heavily on one of the most cost-effective tools ever devised: pharmaceutical innovation, especially vaccines.
Yet that triumph is under a significant threat. This summer, several senior leaders at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—including the agency’s top vaccine experts—resigned in protest, citing political interference and a push to scale back vaccine programs. The measles outbreak in Texas in January that killed two children, is a warning sign - results of not vaccinating a child can have potentially fatal consequences. Yet, states like Florida are going against scientific recommendations and deciding to ban vaccine mandates.
The resignations at the CDC came just weeks after the CDC director was dismissed. Dr. Debra Houry, a longtime CDC leader, wrote in her resignation letter, “Vaccines save lives—this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact”. These resignations are a signal of crisis of confidence in the very institutions charged with protecting Americans’ health. And they remind us that the scientific gains of the last two centuries are fragile, dependent on continued investment and public trust.
The historic record is clear
The story of modern health is mostly a story of innovation in medicines and vaccines.
Vaccines turned childhood death from an inevitability into a rarity. Smallpox, once killing 30 percent of those infected, was eradicated by 1980. Measles, polio, and diphtheria declined dramatically. Globally, routine immunizations now prevent 2–5 million deaths every year.
Antibiotics transformed once-fatal infections into manageable conditions, enabling safe surgery, cancer chemotherapy, and organ transplantation. Modern medicine would collapse without them.
Chronic disease drugs reshaped aging. Antihypertensives, statins, and anti-platelet therapies halved U.S. heart disease death rates between 1980 and 2000. Since 1991, the U.S. cancer death rate has fallen by one-third, thanks in part to drug innovations alongside prevention and screening.
Few human inventions can claim such sweeping impact.
Medicines are the best bargain in health care
Despite their power, medicines often attract disproportionate scrutiny over cost. But the numbers tell a different story:
In the U.S., prescription drugs account for less than 10 percent of total health care spending.
Hospital care, by comparison, consumes about 30 percent. Physician services add another 20.
Vaccines, in particular, deliver extraordinary returns. Every dollar spent on routine childhood immunization saves about $10 in direct health costs.
So, put simply, medicines are not the financial problem in American health care. If anything, they are often the solution—preventing far more expensive hospitalizations, surgeries, and long-term care.
Why vaccines deserve special protection
Among all health interventions, vaccines are unique in that they prevent disease rather than treat it. They deliver lifelong protection at minimal cost and protect communities through herd immunity, shielding even those who cannot be vaccinated.
When vaccination rates decline, this protective shield weakens. Outbreaks of measles and whooping cough in recent years demonstrate how quickly once-conquered diseases can resurface.
That is why the current erosion of trust is so dangerous. Rolling back vaccine programs risks not only individual lives but also the collective health of entire communities.
The future depends on innovation
Beyond vaccines, pharmaceutical innovation remains essential. Antimicrobial resistance threatens to undo the antibiotic revolution, with drug-resistant infections already killing millions of people each year worldwide.As new pathogens emerge, we will need new vaccines and antivirals. And chronic diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, and diabetes still demand better therapies.
The United States has long led the world in biomedical innovation, but that leadership depends on a robust partnership between the private sector and public institutions like the CDC, NIH, and FDA. Undermining these institutions weakens not just American health security but also global progress.
Policy priorities for a fragile gains
To preserve two centuries of gains, we need clear priorities:
Reinforce science-based leadership. Public health institutions must remain anchored in evidence, not politics.
Rebuild public trust. Public trust in our institutions is eroding. Evidence-driven policy and transparent communications are essential to this erosion of trust
Sustain investment in vaccines and medicines. Both routine immunizations and innovating drugs and vaccines for emerging major threats require consistent funding
Expand equitable access. Cost barriers undermine the effectiveness of medicines. Removing them improves outcomes and reduces overall system spending
Align prices with value. Innovative therapies should be rewarded, but industry and public institutions should work together so that affordability does not become an issue
A need to defend progress
The doubling of human life expectancy over the past 200 years is among humanity’s proudest achievements. Medicines and vaccines were central to that story. They remain the most scalable and cost-effective means of improving health.
But progress is not permanent. The recent turmoil at the CDC is a warning sign: when science is sidelined, the gains of centuries can be undone in decades.
Vaccines, in particular, are perhaps the single greatest public health innovation in history. They deserve not just defense but renewed investment, continual improvement, and strong institutional guardianship.
Science, when sustained and trusted, delivers prosperity measured in lives saved and years lived. The challenge now is to ensure that history records not a retreat from progress, but a renewed commitment to it.
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