Inside the Fall of the CDC
How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
Caroline Chen
92d ago
"I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do” -- Dr Jay Butler, CDC.
This story is so sad, so absolutely infuriating.
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A deeply tragic story.
Impressive, important reporting by @SheInvestigates, @kirstenberg, Sebastian Rotella, & James Bandler.
One of the most consequential stories of this awful year has been the collapse of the CDC. Now, after months of work and based on more than 30 insider interviews and hundreds of emails, here from @propublica is the inside story of how it happened.
I hope whatever truth and reconciliation commission is formed after the pandemic grill Steven Miller and Robert Redfield for 11 hours straight about this act of utter depravity. propublica.org/article/inside… pic.twitter.com/BPzZNDZtsN
If you're going to read one story about what happened inside the @CDCgov, make it this one. It will depress you, anger you and leave you shaking your head. Inside the Fall of the CDC
You gotta read a bit to get there, but whooboy wait until you get to the part where the CDC chief of staff quits after having to devote his efforts in the middle of a pandemic to bringing someone's dog into US. propublica.org/article/inside… pic.twitter.com/jewAxDpLoA
The story of the CDC can be summed up in this devastating quote: “I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do."
The collapse of the CDC
2 extraordinary investigative reports of how it happened
propublica.org/article/inside…
@propublica @jamesBandler @SheInvestigates @kirstenberg sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/i…
@ScienceMagazine @cpiller pic.twitter.com/dqeu5YGDIC
“In 2020, time and again, the crumpled paper hurled into the corner was the work of the scientists.”
This story. As a reader, I was riveted. As a reporter, I am in awe (and v v jealous). A must read.
New: How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
Your weekend must-read: The inside story of the CDC's collapse, from @propublica.
“When it mattered the most, they shut us up.”
If you love science or public health or love America’s great institutions, this story will make you cry..
over the last day we've gotten not one but two deep investigations into how the CDC has been hamstrung during COVID.
tons of scoops in this @propublica piece, including the story of how the White House interfered with its guidance for churches:
propublica.org/article/inside… pic.twitter.com/KPgXBz4ZJB
This from @propublica is a painful but necessary read to prevent future health catastrophes. Question for Biden, Congress: How do we fix the agency to stop future WH interference, or establish independence from future anti-science disinformation assaults?
Epic reporting from my colleagues at @propublica that seeks to answer one of 2020's biggest riddles: what the hell happened to the CDC?
How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
“When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment”
History is being written & it does not look good for this Administration.
EXTRAORDINARY, insightful, detailed story! Inside the Fall of the CDC propublica.org/article/inside… by @jamesBandler @SheInvestigates Sebastian Rotella @kirstenberg
This blow by blow account of the destruction of the CDC during the pandemic is the story behind the story of the US’s national implosion
"Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost."
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment."
Many CDC employees feared that if they left the agency and spoke out about Trump's interference, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all.
That government experts had to tiptoe around Trump's feelings cost lives.
This story is so infuriating & so incredibly tragic:
“Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.”
“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do”
Top CDC official to colleagues in May: “I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do." WOW.
Inside the Fall of the CDC
READ
"With >216,000 people dead this year, most Americans know the low points of the current chapter already. A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of pub hlth has, w/breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn & even pity."
This is a hugely depressing story.
"Inside the Fall of the CDC" propublica.org/article/inside… @propublica
We need all of us to act, together, to get this pandemic under control.
But we also need public health leadership. The CDC - muzzled during this pandemic - needs to be out front, communicating with the American people.
Partisanship doesn't end outbreaks.
If you like satisfying long reads, couple this @propublica tick tock about the CDC's demise with a @cpiller investigation into one chapter of this debacle.
propublica.org/article/inside…
sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/i…
Each new round of reporting on the marginalization and knee-capping of CDC during the pandemic is more depressing than the last.
Here, a deep dive from ProPublica on how the White House made CDC "into an agent of propaganda for a political regime"
Very good piece by @propublica about the mistakes made by the CDC and the corruption of the institution by the Trump Administration. propublica.org/article/inside… For another look at this, see "Totally Under Control." @undercontrolmov
“When it mattered the most, they shut us up,” a senior CDC official said. “The threat is clear. If we want to ever be able to talk tomorrow or next week or next month — or whatever is being dangled in front of us, you stay inside the lines.”
This piece is a must read. The CDC was clearly bullied by political apparatchiks from the White House, and that is unacceptable.
But that is not the only lesson here...
When Obama's enforcer @RahmEmanuel tried to rewrite a CDC school closure plan, acting director @DrRichBesser spoke up. Emanuel backed down. That's how the interplay between politics and science should work. Things are a little different today.
You're going to want to drop everything and read this:
Inside the Fall of the CDC, by @jamesBandler, @SheInvestigates, Sebastian Rotella & @kirstenberg
Two of the deepest dives, among others I've seen, into how the Trump regime destroyed the credibility of the CDC: propublica.org/article/inside… and sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/i…
This was a story on which journalism orgs should have collaborated. Instead, vast duplication of effort.
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years."
How science gets sacrificed at the altar of politics.. again and again. A searing account and a must read for any student of global health. propublica.org/article/inside… @cspramesh @AnantBhan @Adit_Agr @prashanthns @epigiri
This is an interesting and - for the WH - devastating read from @propublica.
propublica.org/article/inside…
I'm surprised about this 👇 though. There is *no* question that faulty primer design was the (main) reason for false positives (at a rate of ~3-5%). pic.twitter.com/GG09oE1HUR
Incredibly grim story propublica.org/article/inside… pic.twitter.com/IWQFrMc5ON
Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told.
When science is sacrificed at the altar of politics. Does this sound familiar ? @RameshPV2010 @svaradarajan @MalathyIyerTOI @AnantBhan Fall of the CDC — ProPublica
Essential reading.
"A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of public health has, with breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn and even pity."
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment"
A devastating story on political interference with @CDCgov as it tried to use good #science to guide a #COVID19 response that would build #trust among the American people unified in fighting the virus. We got the opposite.
'To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”'
Inside the Fall of the CDC
"Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told."
Nifty artistic representation of Robert Redfield destroying his legacy.
propublica.org/article/inside… pic.twitter.com/hSKstv8lJZ
This is from an amazing ProPublica piece about the CDC
propublica.org/article/inside…
It seems to me that this is the same recommendation as in Switzerland: do not test after contact with a covid-positive person if no symptoms pic.twitter.com/cxtdZHoetq
Painful read on political perversion of the once premier public health agency...
I read this with profound sadness. A national gem, trashed by failures of leadership and accountability from above.
Here’s the @ProPublica report we were just discussing: “Inside the Fall of the CDC”
Inside the Fall of the CDC: How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, president Trump and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus. via @propublica
Martin Cetron, CDC’s veteran director of global migration & quarantine, coined a phrase years ago for what can happen when people lose confidence in the government and denial & falsehoods spread faster than disease. He called it the “bankruptcy of trust.”
Amazing description on the Fall of the CDC, how the agency caved in to political pressure and discarded science.
“Today, some CDC veterans worry that it could take a generation or longer to regain that trust.”
Rehabbing the CDC will be critical to taking down #COVID—and preventing the next one.
.@propublica provides the most comprehensive answer to a question many of us have been asking ourselves:
WTF happened to the @CDCgov?
It's not clear to me that it will ever be possible to rebuild trust and autonomy in the agencies that have been so thoroughly undermined.
I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. propublica.org/article/inside…
[This is the 1938th tweet in the #ToddlerinChief thread.] pic.twitter.com/Hkwn9F99DY
“appropriating a public enterprise and making it into an agent of propaganda for a political regime”
Inside the Fall of the #CDC:
How the world’s greatest #publichealth organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus...propublica.org/article/inside… by @ProPublica
How Trump Won the War on Science, and hundreds of thousands of Americans died.
This is must-read journalism from @propublica if you want to understand how America lost the most important battle in the Trump administration’s war on science in the middle of a #pandemic
"“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do,” he wrote."
Somber, at times shocking, reading and hopefully not representative for US institutions generally
I remember laughing loudly when @VP Pence said in his debate that the Trump admin "follows the science." I don't think it was intended as a joke, but it's a dark one. They don't follow the science; they politicize it, and kill Americans in the process
New: "@ProPublica obtained hundreds of emails & other internal government documents & interviewed more than 30 @CDCgov employees, contractors and Trump administration officials who witnessed or were involved in key moments of the crisis." propublica.org/article/inside… #phealth #covid19
Lessons for all of us here when we sacrifice our integrity.
Inside the Fall of the CDC
And, yet, White House kept @CDCgov from briefing the public, took away its responsibilities related to data, and watered down its recommendations 13/
“When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years.”
“2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in [the CDC’s] 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which federal doctors withheld medicine from poor Black men with syphilis, then tracked their descent...”
"appropriating a #publichealth enterprise and making it into an agent of propaganda for a political regime"- Inside the Fall of the CDC
How the world’s greatest public hlth organization @CDCgov was brought to its knees by the #coronavirus, the US president and the capitulatn of its own leaders, causing damage that cud last much longer than the virus propublica.org/article/inside… via @jamesBandler et al & @propublica
“If I were to write a book, it would be called Operation Clusterfuck, and it would start with this chapter.” - anonymous CDC official
propublica.org/article/inside…
What it says on the tin, really. ProPublica, so excellent as always.
The assault on science at the CDC: "In 2020, time and again, the crumpled paper hurled into the corner was the work of the scientists." Outstanding work as always from @propublica
Plenty of expert groups have released comprehensive plans on what works. The government’s own experts at CDC would normally have played a prominent role in developing a national strategy, but of course have been stifled and marginalized and all along
Inside the Fall of the CDC & The Role of the White House propublica.org/article/inside… @DanielPAldrich @CDCgov @CDCDirector @CDCGlobal #COVID19
"Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost."
"A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of public health has, with breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn and even pity." Inside the Decline and Fall of the CDC . Excellent @jamesBandler
“Most of us who saw this could be retired or dead by the time that’s fully fixed”
Disquieting look inside the corrosion of the CDC. Certainly never perfect, but politics & its own disorganisation may have destroyed an epi institution with global reach
buff.ly/352A26p pic.twitter.com/NZ8dHry1YW