Inside the Fall of the CDC

NotSanguine writes:

Pro Publica has released a new report on the CDC's response to the SARS-Cov2 virus. The report provides a fascinating look into the workings of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tracking the agency from the first hint of the new virus until very recently, as they worked to understand the new virus, respond to the dangers it presented to the US and the world and desperately tried to limit the spread of the virus.

From the report:

At 7:47 a.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Dr. Jay Butler pounded out a grim email to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Butler, then the head of the agency's coronavirus response, and his team had been trying to craft guidance to help Americans return safely to worship amid worries that two of its greatest comforts - the chanting of prayers and singing of hymns - could launch a deadly virus into the air with each breath.

The week before, the CDC had published its investigation of an outbreak at an Arkansas church that had resulted in four deaths. The agency's scientific journal recently had detailed a superspreader event in which 52 of the 61 singers at a 2-hour choir practice developed COVID-19. Two died.

Butler, an infectious disease specialist with more than three decades of experience, seemed the ideal person to lead the effort. Trained as one of the CDC's elite disease detectives, he'd helped the FBI investigate the anthrax attacks, and he'd led the distribution of vaccines during the H1N1 flu pandemic when demand far outstripped supply.

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