More Than 1,000 Current And Former CDC Officers Condemn U.S. Covid-19 Response
Source: WSJ/MSN
By Betsy McKay, 48 mins ago.
More than 1,000 current and former officers of an elite disease-fighting program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed an open letter expressing dismay at the nation's public-health response to the Covid-19 pandemic and calling for the federal agency to play a more central role.
"The absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous," said the letter, signed by current and former officers of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service of outbreak investigators. "CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency."
Signers included two former CDC directors: Jeffrey Koplan, who led the agency under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under President Barack Obama.
All of the signatories were writing to "express our concern about the ominous politicization and silencing of the nation's health protection agency" during the current pandemic, said their letter, which was published Friday in the Epidemiology Monitor, a newsletter for epidemiologists...
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/more-than-1-000-current-and-former-cdc-officers-condemn-u-s-covid-19-response/ar-BB1a6Bks?ocid=msedgdhp
Long regarded as the world’s premier public health agency, the CDC normally plays a leading role globally in a response to epidemics.
The Trump administration has been deeply involved at times in the shaping of scientific recommendations at the CDC during the pandemic, raising objections to guidelines for reopening churches and schools and for wearing masks, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Trust has eroded in the agency, a recent poll showed. Former agency officials and other public health professionals have spoken up in defense of the CDC, and argue it needs to resume its leading and science-based role heading the nation’s pandemic defenses.
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