Walensky criticizes COVID-19 response, announces plan to transform CDC
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In an email to staff, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, was critical of the agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and announced internal changes aimed at improving how it operates.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific challenges and the lack of regular, clear communications and consistent methods for sharing information impacted our ability to consistently meet the evolving public health threat,” Walensky said in an email to CDC staff Wednesday morning, which was obtained by Healio.
In a statement, the CDC said a review initiated earlier this year found that “traditional scientific and communication processes were not adequate to effectively respond to a crisis the size and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and that the country’s public health capabilities were “woefully under-resourced” before the pandemic.
“We undoubtedly have a frail public health infrastructure within the agency, and around the country, to tackle what we confronted,” the CDC said.
It said Walensky’s changes will create “a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.”
‘Our big moment’
The CDC has faced criticism for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic under the last two directors, and for the last several months has been confronted with another public health emergency, the expanding monkeypox outbreak.
In her email, Walensky said the agency has “never ... had to make decisions so quickly, based on limited and evolving science.”
“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,” she said in a separate statement. “As a long-time admirer of this agency and a champion for public health, I want us all to do better, and it starts with CDC leading the way.”
In her email, Walensky said the review she initiated in April was meant to understand how the agency can “pivot” from long-standing practices and adapt during emergencies.
The review included an analysis of CDC workflows “with a particular focus on how we swiftly move from science and program to policy, so that we can promptly operationalize guidance for the public.”
‘Cultural shift’
Among the changes announced in her email, Walensky said the CDC — which often publishes emerging COVID-19 research in MMWR — should share scientific findings and data faster and translate them so that they are easier to understand and act on.
She said the agency also needs to strengthen the workforce that is trained to respond to emergencies.
“As we move forward, these changes will require a cultural shift,” Walensky said in the email.
“Ultimately, the institutional culture of the agency will need to evolve to reflect these new priorities and how we operate with a focus on serving the public through timely action and impact,” she wrote. “These solutions are intended to ensure CDC’s programs and science reach the public in a timely, understandable, accessible, and implementable manner.”
Walensky announced the creation of a new equity office and said the CDC’s Office of Laboratory Science and Office of Science will now report directly to her. She established a new senior position for global health, who will also report to her.
“In addition, I will continue to gather feedback from agency leadership to develop and submit a reorganization package later this year,” she wrote.
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CDC Internal Email.
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