Dr. Anthony Fauci praised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and director Rochelle Walensky for admitting the agency needs a complete overhaul following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walensky announced Wednesday the CDC would be undergoing a total restructuring under her guidance to focus less on academic research and more on effective public outreach following criticism of its response to the coronavirus pandemic. Fauci, President Joe Biden‘s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, praised Walensky and the CDC on MSNBC on for “owning up” to their mistakes Thursday.
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“I think they should be commended in the fact, particularly Dr. Walensky, realizing and recognizing the shortcomings that have been there for quite a long time, long antedating Dr. Walensky’s tenure,” Fauci told Andrea Mitchell. “I think it was the stress and the challenge of a historic pandemic that brought some of those deficiencies into sharp relief. I believe we should commend them for realizing that, particularly Dr. Walensky.”
In a message to the entire CDC staff Wednesday, Walensky said the agency “did not reliably meet expectations” during the pandemic and made some “pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes.” (RELATED: Scientists Find Evidence Gay Couple Gave Monkeypox To Their Dog, CDC Updates Guidance)
“I’m actually optimistic that given the fact that the problems have now been recognized, that there’s a pathway to making a very good organization much better,” Fauci went on to say. “You’re not going to fix something unless you own it. As Dr. Walensky clearly stated, they made some mistakes, they’ve got to own it, and the only way to correct it is to realize that you have an issue.”
Walensky proposed a list of changes that includes de-emphasizing published research in the hiring and promotion process, publishing research faster without peer review to get new information to the public sooner and restructuring the agency’s communications team.