Readout of Acting HHS Secretary Hargan’s visit to CDC headquarters

Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Eric Hargan traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday to discuss the departmental response to the opioid overdose epidemic and other ongoing public health emergencies with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Brenda Fitzgerald, M.D., and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma.

Acting Secretary Hargan first joined Director Fitzgerald and Administrator Verma at a roundtable at CDC Headquarters, where they were joined by CDC officials to discuss the departmental response to ongoing public health emergencies, including coordinated approaches to scaling up and extending effective strategies to address the opioid epidemic.

At a press conference following the roundtable, all three reaffirmed HHS’s commitment to bringing all resources the Department and the Trump Administration have to bear to address public health emergencies. Specifically, Acting Secretary Hargan highlighted HHS’s five-point strategy to combat the opioid crisis, which includes:

• Improving access to prevention, treatment and recovery support services;
• Targeting the availability and distribution of overdose-reversing drugs;
• Strengthening public health data reporting and collection;
• Supporting cutting-edge research on addiction and pain; and
• Advancing better practices for pain management.

During today’s visit, Acting Secretary Hargan also participated in a hurricane and preparedness briefing and toured several CDC laboratories and the Emergency Operations Center.