The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has paused laboratory testing for dozens of infectious diseases, including rabies and monkeypox, as part of what the agency describes as an evaluation process following recent downsizing.

This is happening while a new COVID-19 variant called Cicada is spreading across the United States. The variant, which health officials say disproportionately affects children, is emerging into an environment where the nation’s primary disease surveillance agency has voluntarily reduced its own capacity to detect and track infectious threats.

The timing raises a question that does not require a medical degree to formulate: is it prudent to reduce disease testing capacity during an emerging variant?

The CDC’s downsizing is part of a broader pattern of reduced federal public health infrastructure. Staffing cuts, budget reductions, and institutional restructuring have diminished the agency’s ability to perform the functions it was created to perform.

Rabies is fatal without treatment. Monkeypox caused a global health emergency in 2022. These are not obscure diseases. They are known threats with known testing protocols that are now paused.

The last time the United States faced a novel pathogen with a weakened public health infrastructure, over a million Americans died. That was COVID-19 in 2020. The lessons from that experience are documented, published, and available to anyone in a decision-making position.

Whether those lessons are being applied is evident from the decisions being made.