CDC Director Proposes Changes

Among the changes is lowering the standards of the level of evidence used to make regulatory decisions. Sigh. Please tell your Senators about #PLANB. THAT is a #Reset.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky announces shake-up of the organization, citing COVID mistakes UPDATED ON: AUGUST 17, 2022 / 7:01 PM / CBS/A

AP in Italics; My Comments in Bold

NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the nation's top public health agency on Wednesday announced a shake-up of the organization, saying it fell short responding to COVID-19 and needs to become more nimble.

Top public health agency? Says who? Evidently FDA no longer has much to say about what CDC recommends?

The planned changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — CDC leaders call it a “reset”— come amid criticism of the agency's response to COVID-19, monkeypox and other public health threats. The changes include internal staffing moves and steps to speed up data releases.

Staffing moves should be interesting. Boot Destefano, Boyle, and every other person involved in data cookery.

The CDC's director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, told the agency's staff about the changes on Wednesday. It's a CDC initiative, and was not directed by the White House or other administration officials, she said.

“Even the White House wants to distance itself from CDC.”

“I feel like it's my my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after a really challenging three years,” Walensky told The Associated Press. (Typo not mine)

It is traditional after a dismal failure for leadership to take responsibility by resigning.

The Atlanta-based agency, with a $12 billion budget and more than 11,000 employees, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. It’s customary for each CDC director to do some reorganizing, but Walensky’s action comes amid a wider demand for change.

Have you read about #PlanB?

The agency has long been criticized as too ponderous, focusing on collection and analysis of data but not acting quickly against new health threats.

Because actually thinking before you act is… thinking.

Public unhappiness with the agency grew dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nominated for the understatement of the decade.

Experts said the CDC was slow to recognize how much virus was entering the U.S. from Europe, to recommend people wear masks, to say the virus can spread through the air, and to ramp up systematic testing for new variants.

THAT IS NOT WHAT OUR COMPLAINTS HAVE BEEN. YES, I’M YELLING BECAUSE SHE KNOWS THIS. SHE’S BEEN SERVED.

“We saw during COVID that CDC’s structures, frankly, weren’t designed to take in information, digest it and disseminate it to the public at the speed necessary,” said Jason Schwartz, a health policy researcher at the Yale School of Public Health.

“Turn-key model FULL ON!”

Walensky, who became director in January 2021, has long said the agency has to move faster and communicate better, but stumbles have continued during her tenure. In April, she called for an in-depth review of the agency, which resulted in the announced changes.

“The CDC has been investigating the CDC… got it…”

"It’s not lost on me that we fell short in many ways” responding to the coronavirus, Walensky said. "We had some pretty public mistakes, and so much of this effort was to hold up the mirror ... to understand where and how we could do better."

At what? Hiding the mistakes? “Public mistakes” are the issue? No. The issue is that you think that public mistakes are the issue.

Her reorganization proposal must be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services secretary. CDC officials say they hope to have a full package of changes finalized, approved and underway by early next year.

I hereby offer to write her resignation letter supporting dismantling the CDC as woefully compromised by conflicts of interest, gross incompetence, fraud, and a monument to fascism.

Some changes still are being formulated, but steps announced Wednesday include:

I hope she gets this message.

—Increasing use of preprint scientific reports to get out actionable data, instead of waiting for research to go through peer review and publication by the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“AKA Lowering the standards of the level of evidence used to make regulatory decisions; preprints are not peer-reviewed. Neither are CDC studies in MMWR.”

—Restructuring the agency's communications office and further revamping CDC websites to make the agency's guidance for the public more clear and easier to find.

We’ve been hearing this for decades. “If only our messaging was clearer”. No. Try “Make our messaging more independent of Pharma’s agendas, reduce the role of considerations of profitability, and try to make sure that what we see actually reflects empirical reality.

—Altering the length of time agency leaders are devoted to outbreak responses to a minimum of six months — an effort to address a turnover problem that at times caused knowledge gaps and affected the agency’s communications.

“In keeping with the “Less Thinking” model of CDC 2023, we will allow less time for intractable problems because the public just isn’t buying it anymore. Just follow orders, and you’ll be fine.”

—Creation of a new executive council to help Walensky set strategy and priorities.
Sign me up. #PlanB.

—Appointing Mary Wakefield as senior counselor to implement the changes. Wakefield headed the Health Resources and Services Administration during the Obama administration and also served as the No. 2 administrator at HHS. Wakefield, 68, started Monday.

“Meet the new boss … same as the old boss” (The WHO, “Won’t Be Fooled Again”)

—Altering the agency's organization chart to undo some changes made during the Trump administration.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzz… I’m sorry were you saying something?

—Establishing an office of intergovernmental affairs to smooth partnerships with other agencies, as well as a higher-level office on health equity.

“There already IS an INTERAGENCY COORDINATING COMMITTEE to make sure the entire HHS gets the lies about autism straight… you mean like that?”

Walensky also said she intends to “get rid of some of the reporting layers that exist, and I'd like to work to break down some of the silos."

Sounds like less accountability. Hard to do when you already have none.

She did not say exactly what that may entail, but emphasized that the overall changes are less about redrawing the organization chart than rethinking how the CDC does business and motivates staff.

Pizza & Beer and lapdances for CDC Staff? They were good enough for the public for COVID-19 vaccines!

“This will not be simply moving boxes" on the organization chart, she said.

“We’ll also be bringing in some new plants, and moving the furniture around. MAYBE some new carpet.”

Schwartz said flaws in the federal response go beyond the CDC, because the White House and other agencies were heavily involved.

Schwartz also announced he will be seeking employment elsewhere soon. (Satire)

A CDC reorganization is a positive step but “I hope it's not the end of the story,” Schwartz said. He would like to see "a broader accounting” of how the federal government handles health crises.

See #PlanB. The “Government” should NOT handle health crises because they refuse to see the crises they help create.

Plan B Public Health Infrastructure and Operations Oversight Reform for America https://ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/19

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-of-the-Core-Design-of-Plan-B-Public-Health-Infrastructure_fig1_348238837

If you live in the US and are on Twitter, please push this to your Senators and Congressional Representatives on Twitter and elsewhere. This “do-nothing” patch-up job amounts to empty words. Read #PlanB. Make it your mission.

It’s time had come BEFORE COVID-19.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.