Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that she will make major changes to the agency's structure, including staffing changes and efforts to improve public messaging.
Rochelle Walensky is speaking.
In a video sent to staff Wednesday morning, Walensky admitted the agency had made "dramatic, pretty public mistakes" in response to the coronaviruses epidemic.
Walensky said that the agency's infrastructure was not strong enough to tackle Covid.
Walensky wants to transform the CDC to focus more on public health, hire more staff for a team that responds to public health emergencies, and create another team to help decide how the CDC is spent.
Walensky ordered a review of the agency in April after rampant criticism of the agency's Covid response.
The CDC and public health have been preparing for Covid-19 for 75 years. Walensky wants the CDC to lead the way by emphasizing accountability, collaboration, communication and timeliness.
At the start of his presidency, Biden named Walensky to head the CDC. Delays in developing tests early on, problems with data collection on vaccines and transmission of the virus, confusing guidance on isolation and quarantining, and allowing the Trump administration to have too much influence on its operations have caused a backlash for the agency's management of the coronaviruses. The CDC's response to the current global monkeypox outbreak has been plagued by testing shortages and a sluggish vaccine roll out. Walensky sent out a video about the results of the review she ordered in April before telling senior staff about her plan. Walensky had been looking at the results of the review for a plan to remake the agency. According to multiple outlets, the CDC was found to be too slow to release scientific findings and data used to inform policy decisions, and needed to improve communication with the public.
The calls for C.D.C. reorganization were cited in Walensky's article.
The director of the CDC lays out an overhaul of the agency.
The CDC director admitted that the Covid-19 response was flawed.
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