New York — The head of the country’s top public health agency on Wednesday announced a change to the organization, saying it was not responding to COVID-19 and needed to get smarter.
The planned changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which CDC leaders call a “reset” — come amid criticism of the agency’s response to COVID-19, monkeypox, and other public health threats. Changes include internal staffing moves and steps to speed up data releases.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walinsky told agency staff about the changes Wednesday. She said it was an initiative of the CDC, and not directed by the White House or other administration officials.
“I feel it is my responsibility to lead this agency to a better place after three challenging years,” Walinsky told The Associated Press.
The Atlanta-based agency, with a budget of $12 billion and more than 11,000 employees, is tasked with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other threats to public health. It’s typical for every CDC director to do some reorganization, but Wallinsky’s work comes amid a broader demand for change.
The agency has long been criticized for being too heavy-handed, focusing on data collection and analysis but not acting quickly against new health threats. Public dissatisfaction with the agency has grown exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts said the CDC has been slow to recognize how much of the virus is entering the United States from Europe, recommend masks, say the virus can spread through the air, and ramp up systematic testing of new variants.
“We’ve seen during COVID that the CDC’s structures, frankly, weren’t designed to take 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.
Walinsky, who became director in January 2021, has long said the agency has to move faster and communicate better, but stumbles persisted during her tenure. In April, it called for an in-depth review of the agency, which led to the announced changes.
“It is not lost on me that we have fallen short in many ways” in responding to the coronavirus, Walinsky said. “We’ve made some general mistakes, and a lot of that effort has been to raise the mirror…to understand where and how we can do better.”
The proposal for reorganization must be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials say they hope to finalize a full package of changes, approve them, and work in progress by early next year.
Some changes are still being drafted, but the steps announced on Wednesday include:
Increased use of pre-print scientific reports for actionable data, rather than waiting for research to be peer-reviewed and published by the CDC Journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Restructure the agency’s communications office and further revamp the CDC’s websites to make the agency’s guidance to the public more visible and easier to find.
Changing the length of time agency leaders devote to responding to the outbreak to at least six months An attempt to address a turnover issue that has sometimes caused knowledge gaps and affected agency communications.
Creation of a new Executive Board to assist Walensky in setting strategy and priorities.
Appointment of Mary Wakefield as Senior Adviser to implement the changes. Wakefield headed the Department of Health Resources and Services during the Obama administration and also served as HHS’ No. 2 Officer. Wakefield, 68, started on Monday.
Adjusting the agency’s organizational structure to undo some of the changes made during the Trump administration.
Establishment of an Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to facilitate partnerships with other agencies, as well as a High Level Office on Health Equity.
Walinsky also said she intends to “get rid of some of the existing reporting layers, and I’d like to work on dismantling some of the silos.” She didn’t say exactly what that might entail, but she emphasized that the sweeping changes are not so much about redrawing the organizational chart as about rethinking how the CDC does its job and motivates staff.
“This is not just going to be moving boxes” on the regulatory chart, she said.
Schwartz said flaws in the federal response go beyond the CDC, because the White House and other agencies have been heavily involved.
Schwartz said the reorganization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a positive step but “I hope it’s not the end of the story.” He would like to see “wider accountability” for how the federal government handles health crises.
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