![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
21-01-2022, 09:15 AM
By MIKE STOBBE
yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information.
Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast.
One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled — moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public.
......
Walensky has said that she came to the CDC thinking about ways to speed data collection and reporting. She once told The Associated Press that she didn’t want the agency to spend months gathering data that gets published after it’s useful. “Like, no one will care,” she said.
......
Her efforts, though, have sometimes gone awry:
— The agency’s decision late last month to shorten isolation and quarantine caught many by surprise. Public confusion included questions such as whether the guidance applied to children and why people didn’t need to test negative before going back to their jobs.
— The CDC briefly overstated the omicron variant’s penetration in the U.S. In mid-December, the agency estimated 73% of the previous week’s coronavirus infections were due to omicron. A week later, the CDC shaved it to 23%, based on additional data. (The CDC turned out to be a week early: Omicron now reigns.)
— Last spring, Walensky said fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in many settings, only to reverse course as the then-new delta variant spread.
......
Much of the problem has been lack of funding and governmental authority, said Shelley Hearne, a John Hopkins University professor of health policy and management. She noted, for example, that the CDC can’t require doctors or states to report disease case counts or other vital information.
......
Some politicians and others have repeatedly undermined the CDC’s message, said Benjamin, of the American Public Health Association. CDC directors “didn’t have this kind of mischief going on in the past,” he said.
......
Early in 2020, the CDC was slow to send out test kits to help state labs identify the earliest coronavirus infections. The agency’s kits had a design flaw and were contaminated.
CDC officials were initially focused on the risk of infections spreading from China and were slow to understand how much coronavirus was coming from Europe.
The agency also was criticized for being too slow to recommend people wear masks, to recognize that the virus can spread through the air and to ramp up systematic testing to detect new variants.
In 2020, the Trump administration was accused of political interference for working to control CDC messaging that might contradict the White House’s portrayal of how the crisis was unfolding.
Better to read the full article at: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-p...7dd4a52c3b
yesterday
NEW YORK (AP) — From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top U.S. public health agency has been criticized as too slow to collect and act on new information.
Now, increasingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also being criticized for moving too fast.
One year into Dr. Rochelle Walensky’s tenure as director, her bid to make the CDC more agile is being challenged by political pressures, vocal scientists and the changing virus itself. In its haste, some experts say, the agency has repeatedly stumbled — moving too quickly, before the science was clear, and then failing to communicate clearly with local health officials and the public.
......
Walensky has said that she came to the CDC thinking about ways to speed data collection and reporting. She once told The Associated Press that she didn’t want the agency to spend months gathering data that gets published after it’s useful. “Like, no one will care,” she said.
......
Her efforts, though, have sometimes gone awry:
— The agency’s decision late last month to shorten isolation and quarantine caught many by surprise. Public confusion included questions such as whether the guidance applied to children and why people didn’t need to test negative before going back to their jobs.
— The CDC briefly overstated the omicron variant’s penetration in the U.S. In mid-December, the agency estimated 73% of the previous week’s coronavirus infections were due to omicron. A week later, the CDC shaved it to 23%, based on additional data. (The CDC turned out to be a week early: Omicron now reigns.)
— Last spring, Walensky said fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks in many settings, only to reverse course as the then-new delta variant spread.
......
Much of the problem has been lack of funding and governmental authority, said Shelley Hearne, a John Hopkins University professor of health policy and management. She noted, for example, that the CDC can’t require doctors or states to report disease case counts or other vital information.
......
Some politicians and others have repeatedly undermined the CDC’s message, said Benjamin, of the American Public Health Association. CDC directors “didn’t have this kind of mischief going on in the past,” he said.
......
Early in 2020, the CDC was slow to send out test kits to help state labs identify the earliest coronavirus infections. The agency’s kits had a design flaw and were contaminated.
CDC officials were initially focused on the risk of infections spreading from China and were slow to understand how much coronavirus was coming from Europe.
The agency also was criticized for being too slow to recommend people wear masks, to recognize that the virus can spread through the air and to ramp up systematic testing to detect new variants.
In 2020, the Trump administration was accused of political interference for working to control CDC messaging that might contradict the White House’s portrayal of how the crisis was unfolding.
Better to read the full article at: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-p...7dd4a52c3b
