The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did neither control nor prevention when confronted with the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak over the past two-and-a-half years. The agency's many shortcomings began with its spectacularly botched rollout of tests for monitoring the spread of the coronavirus in early 2020. This was followed by the agency's failure for many months to recognize that the disease was chiefly spread via respiratory droplets. And let's not forget the agency's comprehensive ineptitude concerning the swift evaluation of the effectiveness of its proposed mitigation strategies such as masking, social distancing, and quarantining. In addition, the agency was dilatory in releasing relevant data concerning boosters, hospitalization trends, and wastewater detection of the virus.
"For 75 years, C.D.C. and public health have been preparing for Covid-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations," admits CDC director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky in a statement this week announcing the reorganization of the agency. According to Bloomberg, she also acknowledged, "To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes — from testing to data, to comms." Those are understatements.
