Psyche, Science, and Society

More on crisis at CDC

September 12th, 2006

Revere at Effect Measure uses a new Atlanta Journal Constitution article on the situation at CDC as an opportunity to remind us of the extent of the damage being imposed upon this critical agency.

We all rely upon the CDC to be competent in its essential mission of preventing and controlling disease outbreaks. It has lost so much of its best expertise that its ability to conduct its mission is put at risk. It appears that “an unprecedented letter to CDC Director Julie Gerberding [was sent last December] from five of the last six of her predecessors.”

“We have all gone through periods of change and recognize the difficulties attendant to change. However, we are concerned about the previous and impending losses of highly qualified and motivated staff,” wrote former CDC directors Dr. William Foege, Dr. James Mason, Dr. David Satcher, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan and Sencer.

As Revere expresses his conclusions:

We’ve worked with CDC scientific colleagues for decades and the people we worked with used to be some of the best in the business. The agency is now full of second and third raters and its competency in even simple programmatic matters, like designing a data collection system, is dreadful. They can’t even do paperwork right. And if you speak out about your concerns, the job security isn’t that good either. Like others, we watch in horror as the agency is being systematically destroyed just at the point in history when we need it most.

Entry Filed under: Avian flu, Healthcare, Public Health