Why is the CDC incapable of producing timely guidance?

Last update: Saturday 2/5/22

The CDC recently released two reports that were late, as usual. One was about three months late; the other was at least a year overdue. Why? What does the CDC staff really do all day? Why hasn't the CDC reorganized its internal processes to produce timely guidance in our fast moving, very deadly pandemic? Operation Warp Speed produced highly effective vaccines in nine months, less than half the usual development time. So why can't the CDC cut its red tape to produce guidance when it's really needed?

DOA because it was OBE
The acronyms describe the state of too many CDC guidance items, "dead on arrival", i.e., nobody cares, or should care about them because they are OBE, a military acronym with two elaborations that mean the same thing; "Overcome by events" or "Overtaken by events". 

Boosters

The first report asserts that boosters don't provide much value for younger people

• "Younger Americans Benefited Less From Booster Shots Than Older People", Apoorva Mandavilli,  NY Times, 2/4/22

The report is accurate, but irrelevant because it is mainly based on data collected when Delta was the dominant variant. Readers may recall that the FDA approved boosters for older people and for people who were immunocompromised AND for people of any age who worked on jobs with extensive exposure to members of the public who might be infected, e.g., health care workers. The CDC advisors did not recommend boosters for younger people in front line occupations.  The CDC director overrode the CDC committee by modifying their recommendation to approve boosters for younger people in front line occupations. 

• "C.D.C. Chief Overrules Agency Panel and Recommends Pfizer-BioNTech Boosters for Workers at Risk", Apoorva Mandavilli and Benjamin Mueller, NY Times, 9/24/21  

So this belated CDC report, issued in February 2022, shows that the CDC advisors had been correct. But who cares? Delta went into the history books by the end of December. It burst onto the American scene when hundreds of breakthrough cases were detected after the July 4th celebrations in the Provincetown, Massachusetts beach resort.

• "Outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Infections, Including COVID-19 Vaccine Breakthrough Infections, Associated with Large Public Gatherings — Barnstable County, Massachusetts, July 2021", CDC, 7/30/21  

 A preliminary CDC report should have been issued by the end of September, a final version by the end of October while Delta was still dominant. By the end of December, the U.S. had entered the Age of Omicron, wherein everybody's immunity needed a boost. The earlier publications might not have been as statistically significant as the February edition, but they would have been far more useful.

Masks

The CDC also issued a report in February 2022 that asserted that N95 and KN95 masks provided their wearers with the best protection against the respiratory coronavirus. 

• "N95, KN95 masks provide best protection against covid, CDC study shows", Lenny Bernstein and Frances Stead Sellers, Washington Post, 2/4/22

Everybody knows this. Indeed N95 masks (the U.S, favorite) have protected American healthcare professionals since the first days of the pandemic back in early 2021. And as we have all noticed, health care professionals have not been hospitalized or died when these masks were available to them.

A public statement that certified what everybody already knew might have been saved thousands of lives had it been issued in February 2021 as the basis for recommending that everyone buy these masks. By early 2021, the supply of N95 masks had increased to a point where the general public could buy them without fear of depriving healthcare professionals of essential tools for caring for their Covid patients.

So what do CDC employees really do all day and why does it take so long for them to do it ???

P.S. ==> What's in a name? <== Click this link

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Links to related notes on this blog:

• "Avoiding the CDC's systemic blunders and flip flops", Last update: 1/7/22
  
  
• "The CDC needs to be reorganized from top to bottom ... Part 1 (Trump's Disdain)", Last updated: 1/22/22
  
  
• "The CDC needs to be reorganized from top to bottom ... Part 2 (Biden's Turnaround Artist)", Last update: 1/11/22
  
  
• "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this anymore!!!", Last update: 1/10/22