Its demoralized workforce is exhausted, its authoritative voice diminished, its data-gathering processes cumbersome. The agency’s funding is too inflexible to deal with challenges that demand rapid mobilization. The time has come for a major reset...
...the trouble...lies in how the CDC is structured, funded and directed. These deficiencies can be fixed in the wake of the pandemic, and the CDC could come out of it stronger and more nimble. The nation needs a more robust CDC...
...As a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies...points to “fundamental and vexing gaps” in the CDC’s authority to acquire data, such as information on the spread of disease. Although the agency is “expected to move decisively at the earliest possible moment when signs of a dangerous outbreak emerge,” and cope with a fast-moving crisis either at home or abroad, it comes up against “five choke points.” One is that for every new disease, it must engage in time-consuming, politically sensitive negotiations to establish individual data-use agreements with each state and private entity, which can hamper its response. During the pandemic, the CDC found that critical data for tracking the virus was often scattered among different, incompatible databases, and it had difficulty persuading states to provide detailed personal information about vaccine recipients because of privacy concerns.
Another choke point: The CDC lacks the contracting flexibility given to other federal agencies, and its funding is fixed in more than 160 individual budget lines, which inhibits its ability to move staff in an emergency. The CDC also lacks authorizing legislation, essential to clarify in law the agency’s mission, structure and funding...
Other priorities include preserving the CDC’s science staff. According to the new study, senior career ranks are aging, retirement is accelerating, and next-generation recruitment lags.
...the study found that the agency’s communications capabilities are “woefully underpowered” for today’s intense media environment. The CDC needs to be able to respond in real time and widely, including on social media, to uncertainty about outbreaks and disinformation about disease and vaccines.
...the Atlanta-based CDC needs a stronger presence in Washington, where policy is forged. The CSIS study also underscores the need to bolster the CDC’s large overseas operations, which are undervalued and underfunded...
The CSIS report warns that the CDC has entered a “moment of peril.” If repaired and bolstered promptly, the CDC will be better able to tackle the real peril: disease and illness.
