U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) is a critical asset to the nation’s public health infrastructure, according to infection prevention specialists including the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). On May 2, the Trump Administration terminated the federal advisory committee, NBC News reported.

HICPAC provides evidence-based guidance that directly informs federal healthcare standards and protects patients and healthcare workers across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and extended care facilities. For example, HICPAC created national standards for handwashing, mask wearing, and the isolation of sick patients.

HICPAC’s recommendations are the basis for healthcare practices that facilities use daily to keep people safe from complications from healthcare-associated infections (including disinfection and sterilization practices for patient care instruments and equipment, isolation precautions for infectious diseases both confirmed and suspected, and disease-specific care and guidance recommendations). These guidelines inform facility-level policies, procedures, and standard work to keep patients and healthcare workers safe 

In a statement, APIC said the decision to terminate HICPAC creates a preventable gap in national preparedness and response capacity, leaving healthcare facilities without timely, evidence-based, and expert-driven recommendations at a time when threats from emerging pathogens and antimicrobial resistance are on the rise. The committee’s interdisciplinary composition—drawing on expertise in epidemiology, infectious disease, infection prevention, hospital administration, occupational health, and patient advocacy —ensures that its guidance is scientifically rigorous and operationally practical.

Disbanding HICPAC jeopardizes decades of progress in preventing healthcare-associated infections, APIC said. The depth of HICPAC’s review of scientific evidence and its members’ hundreds of years of collective experience result in guidelines widely accepted as the standard of care by healthcare accrediting organizations and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The absence of this committee’s guidance creates a significant void in the field, fosters uncertainty among healthcare facilities, and puts patients at risk.  

HICPAC is an essential component of patient safety, and its contributions cannot be replicated by the private sector, APIC emphasized. The association strongly urges CDC through Health and Human Services to reinstate HICPAC to preserve a resilient, coordinated, and science-driven public health infrastructure.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released a new report detailing the scope of President Donald Trump administration’s cuts at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their impact on public health.

“Since January, Trump has launched an unprecedented, illegal and outrageous attack on science and scientists,” Sanders said. “Trump is not only denying scientific truth but actively seeking to undermine it.”

The report finds that Trump officials effectively cut US$2.7 billion in NIH funding in the first three months of 2025, including a 31% cut to cancer research through March, compared to the same timeframe last year. Some of the canceled NIH grants also were intended to support Alzheimer’s disease research, cardiovascular disease studies, diabetes science, and infectious disease clinical trials. CNN reported that the report’s cuts estimate is much higher than previous estimates that suggested targeted grant terminations have affected more than $1.8 billion in NIH funding.

The report draws on HELP Committee Minority Staff’s interviews with dozens of federal scientists, workers, and experts to explain how Trump officials are suppressing what scientists can say, controlling how scientists work together, and erasing scientific data.

As of April, the Trump administration also terminated at least $13.5 billion in health funding, including 1,660 grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report details how Trump’s firings of HHS workers also is threatening the health of millions. For example, HHS has fired a team at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that supported states responding to environmental health threats like pollution, wildfires, and lead in drinking water. Part of the HHS’s restructuring involves consolidating its 28 agencies into 15 new divisions, including the new Administration for a Healthy America. HHS’s focus also will shift to addressing chronic diseases in the U.S.

The report also documents how Trump officials have undermined the important role that vaccines play in preventing disease during the single largest measles outbreak in over 25 years— with 1,001 cases reported, 126 hospitalizations, and three deaths as of May 2, confirmed by the CDC.

The HELP committee published the report yesterday as today it will hold a hearing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discuss Trump’s proposed budget for HHS for fiscal year 2026.