"US CDC Faces Challenges Due to COVID-19, Begins Comprehensive Restructuring"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to undergo a comprehensive restructuring, according to a report by the American daily, The New York Times (NYT).

Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director, announced on the 4th (local time) that the CDC will conduct a full review and evaluation over the next month as part of system modernization and changes for the future. In an email sent to staff that day, Director Walensky stated, "Considering the feedback received both inside and outside the CDC last year, and the lessons learned from the pandemic, now is the time for the CDC to take a step back and strategically reposition itself to support the future of public health."

The review and evaluation of the CDC will be led by Jim Macrae, Acting Director of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), starting from the 11th. Walensky said the focus of this review and evaluation will be aligned with the CDC’s core competencies, including public health workforce, data modernization, health equity, and rapid response to disease outbreaks. Through this collective effort, the CDC plans to develop a reorganization plan and transform itself.

The NYT analyzed that the CDC’s infrastructure, along with the U.S. public health system, has been gradually neglected over decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic posed an unprecedented challenge to the CDC. It explained that early in the pandemic, the CDC’s failure to develop diagnostic tools necessary for tracking and isolating infected individuals led to significant losses for the U.S. The CDC was also criticized for being slow to recommend mask-wearing. The NYT pointed out that this was partly because the agency’s scientists did not quickly recognize that the coronavirus could be transmitted through the air.

Director Walensky’s May last year guideline allowing vaccinated individuals to remove masks indoors and outdoors was also considered a misstep. Just weeks later, it became clear that vaccinated individuals could experience breakthrough infections and transmit the virus. Including compromises to economic and political demands, such as shortening the isolation period for confirmed cases to five days in December last year, the CDC’s pandemic policies faced various criticisms.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.