CDC director announces changes after COVID ‘mistakes’
It’s time for a reset.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that the agency would undergo a reorganization to better respond to public health emergencies.
“I feel like it’s my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during an event on Dec. 8, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (Susan Walsh/)
Walensky’s shuffling of operations and staff comes as the CDC faces criticism for its response to the monkeypox outbreak as well as vacillating guidance regarding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to criticism of the agency leaving it up to individuals to mitigate COVID.
“We saw during COVID that CDC’s structures, frankly, weren’t designed to take in information, digest it and disseminate it to the public at the speed necessary,” Jason Schwartz, a health policy researcher at the Yale School of Public Health, told The Associated Press.
The director acknowledged the agency committed errors.
“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Walensky said in a statement. “As a longtime admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better.”
“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,” she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is pictured. (Ron Harris/)
A major part of the new plan concerns the creation of an office of intergovernmental affairs that will allow better coordination with other agencies and departments.
In an effort to boost transparency, the agency will make data and other findings public in a speedier manner.
Under the new plan, the CDC’s websites will be overhauled to make information clearer and easier to find.
Walensky also announced a new executive council that will shape the agency’s strategies.
Mary Wakefield, a deputy health and human services secretary under President Barack Obama, has come aboard at the CDC to oversee the new changes and reorganization process.
Mary Wakefield, U.S. Health Ressources and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health, is seen in 2010. (SALVATORE DI NOLFI/)
The agency also plans to reverse changes previously made during the Trump presidency.
The changes will need final approval from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.
As of Wednesday, more than 1.03 million people had died of COVID in the U.S.
With News Wire Services
