Sidelining the CDC Means Sidelining Science
The undercutting of the CDC puts American lives in danger
The world is in the midst of the worst pandemic in more than 100 years, with the most dramatic and damaging spread in the United States. And rather than leaning on the knowledge and experience of people who have dedicated their careers to pandemic response, the White House is seeking to create new processes and bureaucratic roadblocks that will force infectious disease scientists further away from decision-making and policy formation.
Hospital data on the coronavirus will no longer go to the CDC, but will instead be routed straight to the Department of Health and Human Services. It’s a move that will make it substantially harder for the CDC — which is supposed to control and prevent the spread of Covid-19 — to do surveillance of the disease (which is critical to quelling cases and deaths) and is a sign of just how politicized the public health response has been, with the White House actively strategizing against the agency most devoted to controlling infectious disease.
I’ve covered the CDC closely through multiple past pandemics, including MERS, Ebola, and Zika. Never has the agency been more sidelined. During previous disease outbreaks, journalists — and, therefore, the American people — had regular access to the agency’s…
