• CDC faces a new overhaul after a damning new report found the agency was to slow to respond to the covid
  • CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told agency staff they need to focus on prioritizing public health needs and on curbing outbreaks 
  • ‘In our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,’ Walensky said. ‘I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way’
  • Report was ordered after CDC criticized for its mixed messaging on covid 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention faces a new overhaul after a damning new report found the agency was to slow to respond to the covid pandemic.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told agency staff on Wednesday they need to focus on prioritizing public health needs and on curbing outbreaks, and to put less emphasis on publication of scientific papers about rare diseases.

‘In our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,’ Walensky said. ‘I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way.’

Walensky told the agency’s staff about the changes on Wednesday.

She said it was a CDC initiative, and was not directed by the White House or other administration officials.

‘I feel like it’s my my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years,’ Walensky told The Associated Press.

The CDC, with a $12 billion budget and more than 11,000 employees, is an Atlanta-based federal agency charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats.

It’s customary for each CDC director to do some reorganizing, but Walensky´s action comes amid a wider demand for change.

The agency has long been criticized as too ponderous, focusing on collection and analysis of data but not acting quickly against new health threats. But public unhappiness with the agency grew dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Experts said the CDC was slow to recognize how much virus was entering the U.S. from Europe, to recommend people wear masks, to say the virus can spread through the air, and to ramp up systematic testing for new variants.

The decision as the result of a review Walensky ordered in April after the CDC faced heavy criticism for its mixed messaging on the covid-19 pandemic. The agency gave muddled and confusing recommendations on masking and other mitigation efforts.

The public guidance to the pandemic has been ‘confusing and overwhelming,’ according to the CDC briefing document provided by the agency to the New York Times.

The review also found that the CDC often takes too long to publish data people needed to make decisions and that the agency should be more transparent about what it does and doesn’t know, a CDC official told the Wall Street Journal.

There were staff shortages too with those tasked with leading the CDC’s covid team rotating out after a few months.

Walensky, who became director in January 2021, has long said the agency has to move faster and communicate better, but stumbles have continued during her tenure.

Her reorganization proposal must be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services secretary. CDC officials say they hope to have a full package of changes finalized, approved, and underway by early next year.

Some changes still are being formulated, but steps announced Wednesday include:

  • Increasing use of preprint scientific reports to get out actionable data, instead of waiting for research to go through peer review and publication by the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
  • Restructuring the agency’s communications office and further revamping CDC websites to make the agency’s guidance for the public more clear and easier to find.
  • Altering the length of time agency leaders are devoted to outbreak responses to a minimum of six months – an effort to address a turnover problem that at times caused knowledge gaps and affected the agency´s communications.
  • Creation of a new executive council to help Walensky set strategy and priorities.
  • Appointing Mary Wakefield as senior counselor to implement the changes. Wakefield headed the Health Resources and Services Administration during the Obama administration and also served as the No. 2 administrator at HHS. Wakefield, 68, started Monday.
  • Altering the agency’s organization chart to undo some changes made during the Trump administration.
  • Establishing an office of intergovernmental affairs to smooth partnerships with other agencies, as well as a higher-level office on health equity.

Walensky also said she intends to ‘get rid of some of the reporting layers that exist, and I’d like to work to break down some of the silos.’