Meet America’s Hidden Health Heroes

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.