The CDC is one of the finest public health institutions on the planet. Because they fearlessly march into "hot zones" to battle deadly infectious diseases, we microbiologists think of the good folks at the CDC as real-life superheroes.
But not everything the CDC does is equally praiseworthy. As Dr. Josh Bloom explains, their portrayal of the opioid crisis has been unhelpful at best and lethal at worst. Their insistence on restricting prescription opioids flies in the face of the overwhelming evidence that the overdose deaths are largely due to the recreational use of fentanyl-laced heroin.
The CDC has also gone on a...