Kennedy's staff warn that he is dismantling US public health

Health chief accused of undermining decades of effective vaccine and prevention systems

- Stephen Armstrong & Ada Barumé

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - once the global gold standard for national health agencies - has been so damaged by ideological redirection instigated by Robert Kennedy, the secretary of health and human services (HHS), that it is no longer capable of protecting America from the next pandemic, agency staff have told The Observer.

"They are dismantling public health in America," said one employee. "I think they're not going to stop until they have effectively destroyed the CDC."

One former worker, Abby Tighe, said: "The priorities of this administration are isolationist. But that doesn't make sense when diseases travel around the world as people do."

The implications are chilling, said Dr Dominik Zenner, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London. "The CDC's expertise in disease surveillance and lab testing cannot be overestimated. Could another country step up to build that capacity? I'm not sure that's possible."

The CDC, founded in 1946, played a critical role in eradicating smallpox; containing the Ebola virus in Africa and helping to develop a vaccine; almost wiping out polio; and dealing with the HIV/Aids crisis.