CDC has done extraordinary work
The article by Brett Murphy and Letitia Stein on “How the CDC failed local public health officials fighting the coronavirus” offers a distorted picture of how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists and public health professionals worked to learn about and confront COVID-19.
The piece conflates errors with realtime learning during an evolving public health emergency.
CDC’s initial laboratory test failed, but the test has worked well since late February. Dr. Nancy Messonnier was exactly right in her characterizations of the pandemic in January and February — until she and other scientists at CDC were silenced, sidelined and undermined by the Health and Human Services department and the White House, a dynamic that Murphy and Stein downplay.
America’s biggest failure has not been of public health — it has been the failure to follow public health principles and support public health leaders. Yes, we need a stronger, more independent CDC with better connections to state and local health departments.
We also need to recognize the extraordinary work CDC has done, for example helping to find and stop outbreaks in nursing homes and other atrisk locations, but not been allowed to speak about.
The CDC as well as state and local public health departments will be integral to our recovery.
Dr. Tom Frieden
Former CDC director President and CEO Resolve to Save Lives New York