CDC Director Rochelle Wallenski called for sweeping changes after an external review found the response to the coronavirus pandemic slow and confused (Image: Reuters/AP)

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is asking for a review of the agency after an external review found that its response to the coronavirus pandemic was slow and disorganized.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced sweeping changes to reprimand her agency’s behavior before taking office in 2021.

“For 75 years, the CDC and Public Health have prepared for Covid-19, but at our best, our performance has certainly fallen short of expectations,” Wallenski told staff. My goal is to create a new action-oriented public health culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.

In an agency report first reported by The New York Times, the CDC acknowledged that its response caused confusion and sometimes came too late to inform the government of its decisions.

Wallenski reportedly wants authorities to stop producing data for public health and medical journals and focus more on reporting.

Funding for the agency will be determined “in consideration of the impact on public health,” the report said.

Wallenski also hopes that institutions will focus on making relevant information available to the public as quickly as possible, rather than waiting for a lengthy peer-review process.

“When I got the data, I was really trying to get it out,” he told The Times.

Congressional approval is required to implement some of Wallenski’s proposed changes. These include empowering state health departments to report data and helping the CDC hire staff more quickly during a crisis.

Earlier this year, Wallenski ordered an external review of the agency’s response to the pandemic in early 2020. This review was overseen by James McRae, a former Department of Health and Human Services employee. McRae’s final report has not yet been made public.

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