ACP Urges Concern for Health Policy Issues, with Shari Erickson, MPH

Access to reliable health data and stable public health infrastructure is critical to safeguarding patient care and supporting clinicians. But recent federal actions—including executive orders, communication freezes, and rescinded CDC grants—are disrupting both. Key health information has vanished from government websites, disease surveillance systems are underfunded, and public health officials are being sidelined at a time when vaccine-preventable diseases are resurging. These developments raise serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and the government’s ability to protect public health.

Many clinicians and organizations, including the American College of Physicians (ACP), are concerned by a number of recent health policy issues and are advocating for these issues to be addressed. Shari Erickson, MPH, Chief Advocacy Officer and Senior Vice President, Governmental Affairs and Public Policy, ACP, participated in a panel at the American College of Physicians (ACP) Internal Medicine (IM) Meeting 2025, held April 3-5, in New Orleans, Louisiana, discussing some of these key issues.1

“We have the biggest measles outbreak we've had in the country in decades, since we had a vaccine come on board… I mean, red or blue states, our members are deeply concerned about that,” Erickson told HCPLive.

HCPLive spoke with Erickson to learn more about the high priority health policy issues outlined during the panel. Among these issues were the measles outbreak, missing informative sites on the CDC website, and communication freezes from the Department of Health & Human Services. Erickson also noted lawsuits against government agencies, including one put forward by Doctors for America (DFA)2, over the removal of online health information, and stated that it was not out of the question for ACP to engage in litigation as well.

“I don't think it's necessarily off the table for us either to consider if there's something that's really going to impact our members in a significant way, which a lot of this already is, we may choose to engage in some sort of litigation as well,” Erickson said.

REFERENCES

1. Erickson S, Lyons G, Outland B. Hot Issues in Health Policy 2025. Presented at: ACP IM Meeting 2025; April 3-5; New Orleans, Louisiana.

2. PRESS RELEASE: Doctors for America Sues Over Removal of Health Information From HHS, CDC, FDA Websites. News release. DFA. February 4, 2025. https://doctorsforamerica.org/pr-removal-of-health-info/