Covid Proved the C.D.C. Is Broken. Can It Be Fixed?

Covid-19 has shown the glaring weaknesses of the world’s premier public health agency — and just how much work it would take to reform it. By Jeneen Interlandi. Illustrations by Brian Rea

The pandemic revealed the glaring weaknesses of the world’s premier public health agency — and just how much work it would take to reform it.

To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. In November, an independent team of academics and public-health experts who called themselves the Covid Rapid Response Working Group gathered on Zoom to puzzle over what had by then become the pandemic’s most vexing challenge: how to make all schools safe for full-time, in-person learning as quickly as possible. Schools had not proved to be a hotbed of coronavirus transmission, but beyond that the research was complicated, and communities were divided about how to balance the risks. Some people wanted a full reopening, immediately, no exceptions. Others were terrified to return at all.

So far, there was no national plan for how to move forward. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was advising everyone to wear masks and remain six feet apart at all times. But that guidance was a significant impediment to any full-bore reopening, because most schools could not maintain that kind of distance and still accommodate all their students and teachers. It also left many questions unanswered: How did masks and distancing and other strategies like opening windows fit together? Which were essential? Could some measures be skipped if others were followed faithfully?

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