CDC admits it failed to respond effectively to Covid crisis
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has admitted that the agency fell short in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and announced that shakeups in the agency were coming.
The Associated Press reports that a "reset" at the organisation is coming. That's the way Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, put it during a press conference on Wednesday.
Dr Walensky said that the decision to change the agency was made internally and not at the request of the White House.
"I feel like it's my my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years," she told The Associated Press.
Dr Walensky took over the agency midway through the coronavirus pandemic in January 2021, but said the agency needed to move faster and communicate better in the future, noting its stumbles responding to Covid-19.
"It's not lost on me that we fell short in many ways," Dr Walensky said. "We had some pretty public mistakes, and so much of this effort was to hold up the mirror ... to understand where and how we could do better."
During the earliest stages of the pandemic, health experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci, said masks would not be useful at stopping the virus — advisement that proved incorrect and may have helped slow some of its early spread. Health experts have also criticised the agency for being too slow to provide information to the public.
The changes Dr Walensky hopes to implement have to be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services secretary. Officials at the CDC said they hope to have the full package of their proposed changes finalised and approved by early next year.
Some of those changes include using preprint scientific reports as a basis for public messaging rather than waiting for peer review and publication in the CDC's journal "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report", and restructuring its communications office and websites to provide clearer and more accessible public information.
Dr Walensky is also hoping to create an executive council to help her set strategy and priorities for the agency, and to appoint a senior counselor to implement the proposed changes.
The proposed amendments would also reverse some Trump-era changes made to the agency, and seek to improve intergovernmental partnerships.
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Testing, vaccines, schools and not admitting to natural immunity, all done wrong. Decisions based on outdated data. Being unprepared. School children being kept from school. An agency that wasn't just wrong but highly politicized. How many lost their jobs over the Biden mandate? How many small business's are gone forever?
Walensky and Fauci are staying on under Biden, but their apologies are unacceptable.
And they are screwing up monkeypox now
I think a re-org is a great thing. The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem in the first place and the CDC did have some major fuckups with handling Covid.
Snuffy, we had a (world-wide) pandemic. If the world knew how to deal with this new germ it would not have been classified as a pandemic- because it would be fixed. The real problem in our country? Excessive freedom can kill people just as fast as a freedom deficit.
You want to know what did not help with Covide-19? Yahooism.
1) They could have and should have said we are unprepared and don't know much right now. Honesty is always the best policy.
2) They should never have become so political. Giving into the Teacher's Union hurt children and families.
Not sure why you're arguing my post other than to just argue. No shit, we had a world-wide pandemic. Did you even read the article? Much less watch the CDC over the past two years? They admit they made mistakes and some very publicly. Their structure did not handle what was needed, they were slow to act, they gave conflicting advice. How much more do you need for them to admit before you can finally understand that the CDC themselves is admitting where they fell short. Now that they have admitted it, they are planning on making changes to fix where they fell short.
Why is this a bad thing? Why are you arguing as if you are against the CDC fixing what needs to be fixed?
What portion of my comment seems like an argument against your comment? Please point it out. At its worse, and that is not the case in my opinion, your comment is noncommittal. At its best, I enhance your comment with my own!
You're MAGA. MAGA is partisan. MAGA discusses mistakes made by others and not by its components. Therefore, MAGA's 'argument' is invalid.
The CDC was unprepared. Trump shut down the 'pandemic' task force/project (whatever it was called) left him by the Obama Administration. I am pretty sure that did not help the CDC one bit. But, I could be wrong.
Moreover, my understanding is the CDC is a research organization more than an executing body, up to this point. Is that right? That is what they are going to work on changing. Is this your understanding?
Lastly, you need to let this "caving in" talk go. In the trenches of trying to save lives . . . we should all be on the same side-expecting and accepting mistakes together. "Drawn together. " Instead of waging a useless and ineffective political game of finger-pointing.
That said, what MAGA did by heedlessly and endlessly seeking to "one-up" the medical community was wrong. MAGA is a political movement, not a scientific movement.
W-H-A-T is THAT nonsense?
Millions of people rely on the CDC for accurate information. Knowing that they did not take their jobs serious and where unprepared for the task delegated to them is highly disturbing.
Making excuses for them is not acceptable.
"well we just messed up" is not acceptable either.
An electronic dic·tio·nary will be a reliable friend, if you ask it to be!
Please Sunshine, give it a rest already. When the CDC gets god-like powers, perhaps then you will have a real complaint. Otherwise, don't be such an opportunist. Why? Because reasonable people won't take that complaint as other than negative 'piling on.' And for the record, Trump out of spite canceled the Obama Administration 'task-force' for pandemic diseases in the timeframe before Covid-19 hit. Do give it a rest.
BTW, millions of conservatives depend on the CDC for accurate information-oh really? Then what was all the protest in Michigan and other state capitals and rallies about no-mask, no lockdown, no vaccines? Enough pretenses and lying some conservatives-Busted.
Arguing against my comment - no. Arguing in general - yes.
This is where it shows up, with your snarky comment.
If you call my use of the term "yahooism" snark, I can ask what do you call what the millions who did not isolate, quarantine, mask, or vaccinate from 2020 - 2022? What do you call it? Political warfare?!!
Like you are?
Well sure when Democrats mandate vaccines.
Are you concerned about false or inaccurate information that your fellow Americans depend on for their life or livelihood or just being a political hack?
I am not a political hack. I can support conservative ideas when I judge or determine the group is in the right or acting in the best interest of all people.
I have all my vaccinations for Covid-19 and am looking forward to the next round as appropriate. BTW, heading into fall: Flu shots are coming. And for those who need another 'round' pneumonia shots. Am I "keen" on so many "batteries" of vaccinations? Not really. But, I definitely am not interested in Covid!
Stop being bombastic. As to whom you get your medical advice I won't concern myself or judge. Just let us make our decisions too without the reckless critiques from those who just throw out negativity against people who are doing their best to offer good science and medicine.
I don't have time to look up every word you type
It read as if you were aiming that at me. If you are using a phrase against the general public then use your words and explain what you are saying. Effective communication requires that you make sure your words and phrases are understood by the audience, it's not enough for you to say you know what you are saying.
Well, don't expect me to hold your hand through any of this!!
This is not about you, Snuffy. That is the best I can say it. I get dumped on everyday in here by the usual suspects. I do my best to take my lumps and keep moving.
Effective communication (online) on pithy comment boards is a game of hit and miss. Especially, when there are commenters "squat" in the middle of dual positions. Hard to tell who is throwing what. So, ask. You did. I answered in the affirmative.
Your feelings where hurt for holding people responsible for their actions. I wasn't aware you are so sensitive.
That isn't what the head of the CDC said. Do you know more than they do about the organization that they work at?
At this point, I will leave this up to you. However this is in the article:
You did'nt touch it yet. And we all saw what that Administration had to say and do doing a pandemic response for a solid year. But, "soldier on."
On the other side, if the CDC is found to have caused deaths during the pandemic, through inaction, indecision, or just plain malfeasance then they should be held accountable by the citizens of this country, also. I just have not seem the facts to support that mentioned yet. Trump Administration's bad covid policies and briefings were in our news feeds every day.
No worries there.
In fact, had you actually bothered to read what I wrote, you would find out that I never asked you to do that to begin with.
But you be you and keep pretending people are writing something entirely different than what you read.
And you be you and keep demanding interactions with NT members who would rather you not bother to writing him or them at all. Since I can't stop you; I will 'join' you!
Does it matter? You say you are not a political hack but insist on badgering conservatives and blaming Trump only.
Both Admins are responsible.
Yes, they should be held accountable and that is what my post had said, but you on the other hand went off on a rant about conservatives and Trump.
Very apolitical of you../s
As well said as ever CB.
I won't be lectured by some partisan MAGA-ite conservative who can't even post a decent avatar! And you claim to be apolitical? No, you are not.
Thanks. But, coming from you, that's wasted on me.
when you're right, you're right.
And when you are wrong; you're wrong.
yes, that is generally how it works, fantastic!!
Proves Trump did the best he could....given all the conflicting and inaccurate information..
I'm willing to say Trump could have done better. He did a lot of good but there are areas... IMO he never fully made the move from CEO and top dog of a privately held corporation to the Office of the President.
For example, we all heard stories about how Trump would walk into a conference room and toss out an "idea" (some called it a hand grenade) and walk back out there by leaving it for the attendees in the meeting to come up with a solution to an idea from "The Boss". You can do that as the CEO of a privately held corp, it's harder to do while in public service. Well the press conference where they were talking about bleach as a disinfectant to clean surfaces to help combat Covid, and we all remember where he tossed out the idea of "how about injecting disinfectant". Everybody who hates Trump immediately took that to mean Trump was talking about having people inject bleach. But that was classic Trump, tossing out a crazy idea and waiting for the people in the meeting (Birx, Azar, Fauci and others on the Coronavirus Response Team) to find a solution of a type of disinfectant that could be injected like an antibiotic.
Trump never really understood IMO that he was too much in the public eye and he could not toss out those ideas expecting his underlyings to find the solution to every idea. He failed in that because he's not a politician. A real politician would never say something like that in public because of the fear of looking bad which is something that politicians try to avoid more than my brother picking up the check at dinner. IMO he could have done better if he had been more of a politician when speaking in any public setting when dealing with Covid.
Trump never has had a filter. He talked and tweeted his way out of a second term
Agreed. I don't know how many times during his campaign and during his term that I wished someone would take his phone away so that he couldn't tweet. He has an incredible need to be the smartest in the room. But even with all the wrong, had Covid not happened I think he would be in his second term now. He just couldn't make the jump into how to act as a president and his mouth got more people to vote against him.
And his mouth is doing so continuously. Nobody likes a "show-off" the saying goes. Especially, when s/he persists in being so. A "show-man" yes. Moreover, there is a reason why politicians are careful; and, politics (like it or not) is an art.
Trump is wrong in a myriad of defective ways, but no need to rub that in here.
I find it hilarious how all the conservatives are jumping on this story proclaiming how right they were about the CDC. The reality of course is that the CDC did do a lot of things right and likely saved tens of millions of lives, but they are also willing to look at what went wrong so they can improve. Right wing conservatives and their Dear Leader will never admit they've done anything wrong regardless of how many times they fuck up. Self reflection is anathema to them. They have to believe themselves superior and infallible in everything. Of course that means they have no chance of ever improving since they believe themselves perfect just the way they are. I'm glad the CDC and even the Biden administration have admitted faults and are working to address them. The economy has improved, the supply chain has improved, all the jobs lost during covid have been regained, gas prices have fallen, inflation has stalled, the CDC has restructured its communications office and websites to provide clearer and more accessible public information, but none of that matters to right wing conservatives, they are resolved to bitch, whine and complain about anything and everything in this administration until they get their Cheeto Benito back in the oval office.
Name them.
Prepared first responders, healthcare providers, and health systems.
Advised businesses, communities, and schools.
Shared their knowledge.
Protected the health of travelers and communities in a globally mobile world.
The tried to ensure the health of individuals in and entering the United States to live and work.
CDC's Response to COVID-19 | CDC
Were they perfect? Of course not, they were trying to figure a lot of it out along the way which is why the self exam they have done and admission of where they got things wrong is so important for how to move forward. It's the difference between the rational Americans dealing with the reality of a global pandemic and a political party or administration like Republicans and Trump, overly concerned with their own image, refusing to accept any criticism, spinning every negative as their opponents fault and when the facts don't favor them they do their best to undermine truth and reality and create "alternative facts".