If there were any justice in the world—or at least the executive branch—then the headquarters of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be evacuated in an orderly fashion, then razed to the ground with dynamite, then paved over with 9-inch thick cement.
But we don't live in that world. We live in a world where the CDC gets to drop a bunch of taxpayer change hiring outside consultants to try and restore its own shameful visage:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky announced plans Monday to revamp the agency that has come under blistering criticism for its performance leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying, "it is time to step back and strategically position CDC to support the future of public health..."
After briefing the agency's leadership team, Walensky sent staff the email, saying the one-month effort, set to begin April 11, would be led by Jim Macrae, associate administrator for primary health care at the Health Resources and Services Administration, or HRSA. HRSA and CDC are part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
She also tapped three senior officials to gather feedback and solicit suggestions for "strategic change." They are Deb Houry, acting principal deputy director; Robin Bailey, chief operating officer; and Sherri Berger, chief of staff and a longtime agency veteran who oversaw the agency's budget for many years and is close to Walensky.
Waaaaaait wait wait wait: This "one-month effort" is going to be conducted by a bunch of Health and Human Services employees?
You're telling me they went internal on this??
Yeah that'll fix things!
Most of the agency's workers, meanwhile, will probably be caught flat-footed by this new proposal:
The email from Walensky to staff went out at a time when many of the agency's more than 13,000 scientists, epidemiologists and public health experts were on vacation.
Yep that sounds about right: The critical public health agency is apparently emptied of a full staff in early April for some reason.
Yeah look, I'm not one to encourage the CDC to be any more proactive than it unfortunately already has been. But, I dunno, maybe if your purportedly indispensable pandemic response agency is structured in such a way that its staff takes vacations en masse, maybe that's part of the problem.
Can't wait to see what this four-week review comes up with!
P.S. Now check out our latest video 👇
