The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that the agency had failed to respond quickly enough and needed to be changed.
In a meeting with senior staff, Dr. Walensky outlined a plan to reorganize the agency's structure to prioritize public health needs and efforts to curb continuing outbreaks.
After months of criticism of the C.D.C.'s response to the Pandemic, steps were announced on Wednesday. The public messages on masking and other measures were sometimes so confusing that they were more like internal drafts than official statements.
The public guidance has been confusing and overwhelming.
Senior federal health officials were unsure who was in charge after the leaders of the agency's Covid team were replaced. Some data on breakthrough infections that could have influenced a recommendation to authorize a round of booster shots were released too late.
C.D.C. and public health have been preparing for Covid-19 for 75 years, but their performance did not meet expectations. I want a new, public health, action-oriented culture at C.D.C.
She described her plan in a video to the agency's more than 11,000 employees. It was welcomed by some of the agency's senior staff members, as well as by outside public health specialists.
The agency has been accused of being too academic. Many of its experts are used to conducting narrowly focused research that undergoes lengthy reviews, and they are uneasy with the kind of urgent action needed to address the coronaviruses.
In an interview on Monday, Dr. Walensky said she had pushed staff members to quickly turn around Covid-19 data. She said that some of the data was messy and took a long time. When we had it, I tried to push it out.
The review was led by a man who has held senior positions at the Department of Health and Human Services. One official said that the report was being finished.
The appointment of a former Obama administration health official is one of the changes described by Dr. Walensky. Two scientific divisions will now report directly to the office of Dr. Walensky. The agency is changing its promotion system so that it rewards efforts to make an impact on public health, and is less reliant on the number of scientific papers published.
According to the document, Dr. Walensky wanted staff members to produce data for action instead of data for publication.
The agency will require officials who respond to public health emergencies to stay in their positions for at least six months. Senior federal officials said that the system of rotating out after only a few months sowed confusion and took up valuable time during the Pandemic.
A new executive team will be created to set priorities and make decisions about how to spend the agency's annual budget of about $12 billion.
The C.D.C. is trying to improve its public messaging. According to the document, Dr. Walensky wants to make sure guidance is easy to comprehend.
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