Contact Jordan LaPier Director (202) 495-3320 jlapier@ourpublicservice.org Sammies’ honor government’s best and most innovative employees October 12, 2018 Peggy Honein vividly remembers the day in 2016 when an obscure virus went from a curiosity to a major public health threat. There were disturbing reports out of Brazil of newborns with tiny heads, and the scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were trying to determine why that was happening.