In 2020 U.S. tuberculosis counts fell by a fifth, but it was no victory: the people who track the disease had been sent to fight COVID-19. The count then climbed four straight years to its highest level in more than a decade. The episode covers the Kansas City, Kansas outbreak, the 2025 and 2026 federal budget and staffing changes, and why the WHO again counts TB as the world's leading single infectious killer.
Who's who
- Molly Deutsch-FeldmanCDC epidemiologist who warned the 2020 drop suggested missed diagnoses
- Paula M. WilliamsCDC scientist who led the report on the 2023 rebound
- Janet Stanek+1 more episodeKansas health secretary who announced the outbreak's end
- Ashley Goss+1 more episodeKansas deputy health secretary who called the outbreak unprecedented
- Brian C. Castruccide Beaumont Foundation head who runs the public-health workforce survey
- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.+2 more episodesHealth and Human Services Secretary who ordered the April 2025 staff reduction
- Tedros Adhanom GhebreyesusDirector-General of the World Health Organization
Where it happens
- Kansas City, Kansas+1 more episodeSite of an outbreak declared over in November 2025
- Wyandotte County, Kansas+1 more episodeHome to most outbreak cases
- Johnson County, KansasReported some outbreak cases
Timeline
- March 26, 2021CDC reports 7,163 provisional cases for 2020, down about twenty percent, and warns of missed diagnoses
- January 2024First tuberculosis cases linked to the Kansas City outbreak are recorded
- April 1, 2025HHS cuts about a quarter of CDC staff, including branches of the global TB division
- November 12, 2025WHO report counts about 10.7 million falling ill and 1.23 million deaths in 2024
- November 14, 2025Kansas declares its outbreak over: 68 active cases and 91 latent infections
- February 3, 2026FY2026 appropriations keep the domestic TB line at about $137 million and reject a block grant
Still debated
The size of the Kansas outbreak is disputed among Kansas officials and a CDC spokesperson, and how much of the rebound was real versus renewed case-finding is unresolved. No public count was found of TB positions cut and restored at the CDC, so the effect of the 2025 changes is unknown.
