The David J. Senser CDC Museum is a part of the CDC headquarter in Atlanta, Georgia. This museum showcase many past achievements of the CDC. During this current political climate where science is often undermined and underfunded, I felt a dire need to highlight the importance of government agencies like CDC in protecting not only our country but the world from pandemics.

The museum offers self-guided tour brochures along with a checklist of recommended must see things. You can easily pick up a clipboard, the list, and a pencil at the welcome desk and start your own tour. I took the liberty of asking a volunteer on each floor to tell me their favorite display. Most were very proud of the Ebola display because the patients were quarantined at Emory hospital right down the street from this museum. There were many displays featuring unfolding mysteries of unknown diseases, as well as past prevention campaigns.

During my visit, I notice a parallel narrative of science and politics in disease control. In other word, this was not just a science museum where you learn about diseases. The center tells stories of how science and government work together to provide knowledge and tools for us all to battle communicable diseases. One story that truly stuck out to me is the CDC’s involvement in the AIDS Epidemic. While the display show discovery of the virus itself, it also showed the propaganda used to justify the passivity towards helping those who were affected. This disease and those affected by the disease have faced many battles to gain the attention and help that it deserves. The politics and history surrounding the virus as well as its nature of attack fascinates me.

I got to see the first known article speculating the identity of the diseases and the picture of the team that named it AIDS. There were also some of the earliest photographs taken of the virus.