CDC announces major agency overhaul; what about Lyme?

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has announced a major overhaul of the agency she leads.

Admitting that the CDC had failed to respond effectively to the coronavirus epidemic, she said it’s time to “pivot.”

“For 75 years, CDC and public health have been preparing for COVID-19, and in our big moment, our performance did not reliably meet expectations,” Walensky said in a statement.

“My goal is a new, public health action-oriented culture at CDC that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, communication, and timeliness.”

Her announcement came after a comprehensive review of the agency’s coronavirus response that she ordered in April.

That document has not been publicly released yet, but she spoke about it in a video sent to CDC employees. She stated, “To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications.”

I’d like to point out that for decades, the CDC has made pretty dramatic mistakes about Lyme disease, too.

With all this reorganization, the agency should also revamp its approach to Lyme disease,  “from testing to data to communications.” A good place to start: correcting faulty information about Lyme disease on the CDC website. But much more is required.

An overhaul is overdue.

For details about Walensky’s announcement, see this report from CBS News.

TOUCHED BY LYME is written by Dorothy Kupcha Leland, Board President of LymeDisease.org. She is co-author of When Your Child Has Lyme Disease: A Parent’s Survival Guide. Contact her at dleland@lymedisease.org.