Originally broadcast May 29, 2024
You know about the Army and Navy, but have you heard about the USPHS Commissioned Corps?
It is one of the nation’s uniformed services — a branch committed to the service of health. Its over 6,000 officers advance the nation’s public health, serving in agencies across the government, as physicians, nurses, dentists, veterinarians, scientists, engineers and other professionals.
President of the Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Foundation Gene Migliaccio spoke to “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter about the role the Corps played in combatting the pandemic.
The fight against COVID-19 was the largest deployment in the 223-year history of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. At the beginning of the pandemic, “I think what we did right was the mobilization,” Migliaccio said.
“When Covid hit, we didn’t have testing centers. It started slowly, and then all of the sudden there were hundreds of them. It took a tremendous amount of effort and some of the best and brightest minds within the Department of Health and Human Services” to accomplish that, he said.
The Public Health Service Commissioned Officers Foundation is part of a new documentary titled “Invisible Corps,” narrated by the actress Ali McGraw. The piece is trying to raise awareness about the Corps and also how public health has become politicized.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Podchaser | TuneIn | RSS | More
Originally broadcast October 9, 2025 $44 billion in drugs that help Americans are purchased through…
Originally broadcast October 2, 2025 The federal government is shut down and the ripple effects…
Originally broadcast Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Happy anniversary to “Conversations on Health Care”! We posted…
Dr. Wayne Jonas, who formerly led the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine,…
Next week former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez will testify in…
Supporters say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is fulfilling his vision…