This article, in a slightly edited form, first appeared on Pain News Network on August 29, 2020.

For most of my career, I have revered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I believed it had the best scientists in the world and that we could, and should, believe everything they said.

The CDC Prioritizes Politics Over Science

Not anymore. Unfortunately, the CDC has devolved into a partisan mouthpiece for politicians and individuals with agendas not supported by science.

The Academy Award-winning documentary Under Our Skin first showed me how politics influence decisions at the CDC. The film illustrates how chronic Lyme disease (CLD) can cause a great deal of suffering, including chronic pain and fatigue. But the medical community has been unwilling to respond appropriately because the government has determined that CLD is a “controversial” diagnosis. Patients’ pain is increased because the government refuses to validate their disease. The ongoing “Lyme wars” still make it difficult for patients to get post-Lyme disease testing and treatment.

Contagion is a theatrical movie about a pandemic that shows the CDC making decisions based on the political aspirations of key CDC officers. This fictional story about a pandemic and the power-seeking nature of CDC officials was unfortunately prescient.

The CDC Has Done Better

We have seen the tremendous work the CDC can do worldwide. The Ebola virus was contained, and potentially millions of lives were saved, because of the stellar work of enormously talented, dedicated CDC scientists.

The CDC activated its Emergency Response Center to protect the United States and its territories from the threat of the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects and Guillain-Barré Syndrome. My childbearing-age daughter cancelled trips to areas that the CDC warned posed a high risk.

It conducted more than 160,000 Zika virus tests, created registries to track pregnant women who were known to be infected with the virus, and provided $251 million in grants to state, local, and territorial health departments. Their ongoing efforts to minimize the damage from Zika demonstrates the exemplary work the CDC can perform.

The CDC’s Politicization Is Not Partisan

The politicizing of the CDC is nothing new. During the Obama administration, the CDC became a tool of anti-opioid zealots. Republican Congressman Harold (Hal) Rogers of Kentucky is a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee. You may have heard his name recently, because he determined the amount of the CDC’s emergency funding for the coronavirus. However, he’s not a newcomer to politics. President Obama joined Congressman Rogers at the National RX Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in 2016 to support increased funding to address prescription drug abuse. That action ignored the larger problem of illicit drug abuse, and the fact that the opioid crisis has been mischaracterized as a prescription drug problem.

The CDC Harms Millions of Americans With Its Opioid-Prescribing Guidelines

When Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP) was unable to get all of what they demanded from the FDA through a citizen petition, they turned to the CDC, where they found political allies. This led to the now infamous CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.

As we all know, these guidelines have caused enormous harm to millions of Americans. The American Medical Association (AMA) implored the CDC to significantly change the guidelines “to protect patients with pain from the ongoing unintended consequences and misapplication of the guidance.” Even lead author Dr. Deborah Dowell and her colleagues have since backpedaled, saying the guidelines have been misapplied to withhold medication from patients who need it.

Yet the harm had already been committed and continues. Alarmingly, the Department of Justice (DOJ) interprets the guidelines as mandates, warning and potentially punishing doctors who do not follow the guidelines. Several states have blindly adopted the guidelines in a naïve attempt to address the rising number of drug overdose deaths, either not understanding or ignoring the fact that most overdoses are due to illicit, rather than prescription, drugs.

CDC Vacillates and Backpedals

Now we see the CDC yo-yoing with their recommendations regarding COVID-19. Initially, the CDC said that masks were not necessary except for those who were sick or taking care of someone who was sick. Now they recommend that everyone wear a mask—but the current administration wants to leave that decision up to the individual, so they have not issued a federal mandate. This is contrary to the advice of most experts.

The CDC has stated that testing for COVID-19 is important. But when the current administration apparently pressured the CDC to change their position and recommend that asymptomatic people who were exposed to the virus not get tested, they did so. They allowed politics to (no pun intended) trump science. Director Robert R. Redfeld has now reversed his position and said COVID-19 testing is important for those who have been exposed to the virus, even if they are asymptomatic.

I agree with Dr. Leana S. Wen, a well-recognized authority on public health, who wrote in the Washington Post, “I worry that this CDC change is part of a larger pattern of diluting recommendations when the federal government can’t do its job properly.” Perhaps we all should worry.

What are we to believe? I, for one, can no longer believe what the CDC says unless it is verified by non-partisan scientific bodies. This is a sad time. Our health is being played with as if it were a game. I feel like a commoner in Game of Thrones, as the kings fight for power and ignore their people.

We, the commoners, should insist that the CDC become an independent agency without a political appointee, so it would be unassailable by politicians who are more interested in controlling messages than diseases.

Lynn R. Webster, MD, is a vice president of scientific affairs for PRA Health Sciences and consults with the pharmaceutical industry. He is author of the award-winning book The Painful Truth, and co-producer of the documentary It Hurts Until You Die. Opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and do not reflect the views or policy of PRA Health Sciences.

You can find him on Twitter: @LynnRWebsterMD.