Text: Dr. Celine Gones on “Face the National With Margaret Brennan”, August 31, 2025

Below is a copy of an interview with Dr. Celine Gones, CBS News Medical, and KFF-editor in public health, which was broadcast on the “confrontation with the nation with Margaret Brennan” on August 31, 2025.

Ed Ociv: We are now joining Dr. Celine Gones, CBS News Medical, and generally edited for public health at KFF Health News. Doctor, very great to see you. Thank you for coming to Washington for this important conversation. Because it was a very messy week at the center of diseases control, at the very least. We have seen the overthrow of the agency’s head, who was only confirmed by the Senate this summer, and is now a legal challenge. He also left senior officials. They are still reeling from shooting at the headquarters in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Why this departure is very important to notice? How do they affect you, me, and everyone, in terms of health and medicine?
doctor. Céline Gounder: I think it is really important to understand that this is not just a bass. This really affects us all. So not only the manager, but people responsible for respiratory infections, vaccine safety, chief medical officials, and the person who was responsible for public health data also resigned from this week. So these are really the main positions. Not to mention that many of the managers of the different centers, because they are the crowd centers, have been forced to go out in the past few months. So you are really dealing with the driving vacuum at the Center for Disease Control. Therefore, this is not a job as usual. Thus, specifically, how does this affect you and me, you people who watch at home? Therefore, the beginning of the beginning, the policy of the vaccine. The policy of vaccine is now placed by political FIAT and communication through social media, rather than a transparent and open scientific review process. Thus, we see the reflection of the previous recommendations, which will also confuse whether the insurance will cover some vaccines for some people, and it is already cultivating tremendous confusion in pharmacies, as well as the doctor’s offices.
Ed Ociv: So, there is a series of upcoming meetings regarding the future of vaccines and how it will be available, whoever gets it. Tell us about that and the fears that some of these, now CDC officials are now destroyed about what might happen in those meetings?
doctor. Gonder: Yes. So these meetings are decided in mid -September. Some things on the agenda include the dose of hepatitis B. We usually give it to the new iron because this is to prevent the transmission of infection from the mother to the child. Therefore, this is one of the most common methods that transmit hepatitis B.
Ed Ociv: One of the first shots a child gets.
doctor. GOUNER: One of the first shots you get, for a good reason. Also protection for infants, for RSV, one of the most common causes in the hospital among infants. Three, Covid shots. We expect to see the tightening of the availability, and the eligibility of Covid shots, especially for healthy and adult children. After that, finally, the measles, the mumps, the foolish vaccine for the German dream, and the reconsideration of the recommendations of the long childhood vaccine are unprecedented, here.
Ed Ociv: So, it is basically every snapshot you get from 0 to 18 now for discussion, then the Covid shot, of course, a task that is important for many people on a regular and rolling basis?
doctor. Jonder: Yes, some of the really basic things that we considered for a very long time. Some basic concerns with this process include cherry selection of data, scientific reviews that are changed or withdrawn, and unstable studies that are transferred to the process, to policy -making. This is really the reflection of radical transparency.
Ed Okiv: Yes. There was an example in recent days, because there- did we start- autumn coming, picking covid. We have already seen one example of a school in Kansas City, which was forced to closely closed due to Covid, and there were mutations in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, in particular. What do people at home need to know it with the approaching fall and Covid begins to rise?
doctor. Gounder: Well, I think, first and foremost, that vaccines are for different purposes. So it is to prevent severe diseases, hospitalization and death. But for many people, you may not be able to contact patients to work very easily, like us, it is really difficult to spend a vacation even if you are really sick. You may want to keep your children in school, so the best way to keep yourself at work or your school children is to be vaccinated so that you do not get sick.
Ed Ociv: Let’s- and we must, by the way, indicate that the school was closed, it opened again on Tuesday, but the fact that they had to close at all, right, with the start of the school year, is a sign, probably, on the things that come when people do not get their shots. Let’s skip this. I am a 42 -year -old man with asthma. Will I face problems in getting my Covid snapshot?
doctor. Gonder: You won’t do it, although you are less than 65 years old. So the recommendations- or the approval of the Food and Drug Administration are for people who are 65 years old and over, but they are good. They can get their Covid shot. Less than 65 years old if you have at least one risk factor for severe Covid, you can also get a Covid shot. So you can, definitely. This is not a problem for you, Ed.
Ed Ociv: But this- as you know, children under the age of 18, a completely healthy husband, and elderly mothers?-
doctor. Gounder: – Yes, so parents who are over 65 years old are eligible. But say you ranged between 6 months and 64 years and you do not have a risk factor on severe Covid. This is the group that we have a lot of uncertainty. Now, I must point out that pregnancy is a risk factor for severe existence. So your healthy wife, let’s say she is pregnant, which I do not think she is, but if she is, you will be eligible to get a coffee shot.
Ed Ociv: Well. Dr. Céline Gounder, we love to help us understand all this. We can go down, it is good to see you. We will return to the right.