New York Times Examines CDC’s Mistakes In COVID-19 Response, Experts’ Loss Of Confidence In U.S. Public Health Agency

New York Times: The CDC Waited ‘Its Entire Existence for This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?
“…The CDC, long considered the world’s premier health agency, made early testing mistakes that contributed to a cascade of problems that persist today as the [U.S.] tries to reopen. It failed to provide timely counts of infections and deaths, hindered by aging technology and a fractured public health reporting system. And it hesitated in absorbing the lessons of other countries, including the perils of silent carriers spreading the infection. The agency struggled to calibrate its own imperative to be cautious and the need to move fast as the coronavirus ravaged the country, according to a review of thousands of emails and interviews with more than 100 state and federal officials, public health experts, CDC employees and medical workers. In communicating to the public, its leadership was barely visible, its stream of guidance was often slow, and its messages were sometimes confusing, sowing mistrust…” (Lipton et al., 6/3).

New York Times: ‘They Let Us Down’: 5 Takeaways on the CDC’s Coronavirus Response
“…[A] New York Times review of thousands of emails, and interviews with more than 100 state and federal officials, public health experts, CDC employees, and medical workers, documents how the Covid-19 pandemic shook longstanding confidence in the agency and its leader, Dr. Robert R. Redfield. These are some of the key findings…” (Shear, 6/3).

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