The leader of the country's leading public health agency announced a reorganization of the organization on Wednesday, claiming it was slow to respond to COVID-19 and needs to be more nimble.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning adjustments; agency leaders refer to it as a "reset." The revisions come in the wake of criticism of the agency's response to COVID-19, monkeypox, and other public health risks. Internal staffing adjustments and measures to speed up data releases are among the improvements.Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, informed the personnel of the organization of the changes on Wednesday. She said that it is a CDC project and was not ordered by the White House or other members of the administration.
Walensky informed CDC personnel, "CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19 for 75 years, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations.
With a $12 billion budget and more than 11,000 staff, the Atlanta-based organization is in charge of defending Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health dangers. Each CDC director is expected to perform some reorganization, but Walensky's move coincides with a broader need for reform.
"After a particularly difficult year, I feel that it's my duty to guide this agency to a better position.The agency has long faced criticism for being overly cautious, concentrating on data gathering and analysis while failing to respond promptly to emerging health hazards. During the COVID-19 pandemic, public discontent with the agency significantly increased. According to experts, the CDC took too long to acknowledge the extent of the virus's entry into the US from Europe, to advise people to wear masks, to acknowledge that the virus can transmit through the air, and to increase systematic testing for new strains.
According to Jason Schwartz, a health policy researcher at the Yale School of Public Health, "we observed throughout COVID that CDC's institutions, honestly, weren't meant to take in information, digest it, and communicate it to the public at the speed necessary."The agency has to move more quickly and communicate better, according to Walensky, who took over as director in January 2021, but stumbling blocks have persisted under her leadership. She demanded an extensive examination of the organization in April, which led to the publicized adjustments.
Walensky stated, "It's not lost on me that we went short in many areas" in our response to the coronavirus. We made some quite well-known blunders, so a large part of this endeavor was to hold up the mirror and figure out where and how we could improve.The US Department of Health and Human Services secretary must approve her proposed reorganization (HHS). According to CDC experts, a comprehensive package of reforms should be completed, approved, and in motion by the beginning of next year.Although certain adjustments are still being made, the following actions were revealed on Wednesday:
Instead of waiting for research to undergo peer review and publication by the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, there should be a greater use of preprint scientific reports to get out useful data.
Reorganizing the agency's communications department and further updating the CDC websites would help the agency's public guidance become more understandable and accessible.
reducing the amount of time agency officials spend responding to outbreaks to at least six months in an effort to solve a turnover issue that occasionally resulted in knowledge gaps and hampered the agency's messaging.
the formation of a new executive council to assist Walensky with prioritization and strategy.
naming Mary Wakefield as a senior counsellor to carry out the adjustments. Wakefield served as the second-ranking administrator at HHS and served as the director of the Health Resources and Services Administration under US President Barack Obama. Wakefield began work on Monday.
modifying the agency's organizational structure to reverse some modifications made under President Donald Trump's administration.
establishing a higher-level office on health equity as well as an office of intergovernmental affairs to facilitate collaboration with other agencies.
In addition, Walensky stated, "I'd like to work to break down some of the silos" and added, "I'd like to get rid of some of the reporting layers that exist." She did not specify what precisely that may include, but she stressed that the broader reforms are more about reimagining how the CDC conducts business and engages employees than they are about redacting the organizational chart.
"This will not be just moving boxes," she remarked of the organizational plan.
Because the White House and other agencies were highly involved, according to Schwartz, problems with the federal response extend beyond the CDC.A reorganized CDC is a start in the right direction, but Schwartz said, "I hope it's not the end of the narrative," adding that he would like to see "a larger accounting" of how the federal government responds to health emergencies.
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