CDC admits Covid failure. Monkeypox should be next.

U.S. fails post-Covid test. Monkeypox outbreak shows how CDC and public health institutions have let us down.

America has failed its first post-Covid test — and Covid isn’t even over. The country remains fully mired in the pandemic, with this summer’s caseloads among the worst since the novel coronavirus first surfaced. At the same time, we have been unable to apply the lessons painfully gleaned over the past two years to the next virus to come along, monkeypox. Doubly alarming, monkeypox presented none of the staggering challenges that Covid did.

On Wednesday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walenksy conceded that her agency “did not reliably meet expectations” in its “big moment” when it came to confronting the challenge of the pandemic. In addition to this welcome admission, she also prioritized quicker data-sharing and stronger messaging that the public can readily relate to. 

The mistakes have spanned the entire process from diagnosing monkeypox to treating it.

But the bungled monkeypox response underscores just how vast the gap is between the CDC’s aspirations and its current reality. The United States has had to declare the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency to emphasize the growing risk to Americans. At this point, the nation’s monkeypox cases, confirmed in 49 states, account for more than 30 percent of the world’s current disease burden. 

The public health challenge posed by monkeypox should have never been this formidable. Unlike Covid, the monkeypox virus was not an emergent threat for which a playbook and vaccine did not initially exist. In addition, many of the tools we needed to fight it were exactly what Covid should have prepared us for: beefing up our national stockpile of vaccines, rapidly administering tests, coordinating between federal and local authorities, and providing messaging that is unalarming and tailored to both general and at-risk populations. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/cdc-admits-covid-failure-monkeypox-rcna42516


Post ID: 6051a742-9be1-4473-95db-be139c02d31c
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Updated: 1 year ago
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