CDC Fails to Take Responsibility at Hearing For Breaking Public Trust

In a congressional subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, the CDC did not take accountability for misleading Americans about COVID-19, nor do its efforts to restore public trust relate to why it was broken.

By Megan Redshaw

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants more resources, additional funding, and plans to focus on its ever-expanding surveillance and health data platforms to restore trust in the agency and improve the health of Americans plagued with increasing rates of chronic disease despite the agency’s multi-billion-dollar budget.

In a Tuesday hearing held by the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, CDC representatives said they are focused on modernizing technology, detecting and controlling pathogens, and are working with other agencies to ensure that vaccines are ready to go in the event of another pandemic. 

This comes amid the nearly 38,000 reported deaths due to COVID-19 vaccines, a rising mental health crisis among children and adolescents data suggest was created or worsened by CDC policies, unprecedented learning disabilities among children who were forced to wear face masks and prohibited from attending school, and misleading public health messaging that has never been explained.

The hearing, entitled “Are the CDC’s Priorities Restoring Public Trust and Improving the Health of the American People?” aimed to assess the effectiveness of critical centers within the CDC to ensure the agency is working to regain public trust and protect the health and well-being of the American people. 

“The agency’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly exposed some failures and shortcomings at the CDC, and that damaged the confidence of the American people and public health systems—and that happened by the way worldwide,” Rep. Neal Dunn (R-Fla.) said during the hearing. 

“Of all the government agencies that have broken the public’s trust, the CDC is at the top of the list,” said Chairs Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) in a statement before the meeting.

“Unfortunately, the agency’s current priorities—like climate change and social determinants of health—do not instill confidence that the agency is focused on its core mission of improving public health and preventing the spread of diseases,” they added. 

In a joint statement to the subcommittee, the CDC said its public health response during the COVID-19 pandemic identified challenges and gaps in the agency’s “core capabilities” that prompted it to perform an extensive review and change its organizational structure, systems, and processes. 

The agency has “broken down internal silos” and is working to create and maintain more robust partnerships with the public health sector with a focus on “fast, accurate, and transparent communication to improve public trust.”

“These advancements have strengthened our ability to deliver on our core mission to equitably protect the health, safety, and security of Americans,” the agency said. “We are forging ahead as “One CDC,” now working as a more cohesive, disease-agnostic entity.”

The specific "gaps" identified by the CDC remain unclear. However, the agency’s proposed solutions, which revolve around more surveillance, more funding, and more vaccines, suggest the agency intends to continue its current approach.

CDC “Fell Flat” During COVID-19 Pandemic

Rodgers said the CDC was established to assist states and localities in controlling infectious disease outbreaks. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic occurred and the agency had its moment to shine, it “fell flat” on almost every level. 

“From egregious flaws in testing, confusing—and, at times, blatantly misleading—communication mishaps, and one-size-fits-all guidance and mandates, the CDC failed at its primary job of helping states and localities detect, respond to, and control a disease outbreak,” Rodgers said. 

“These failures beg the question, why did the CDC fail to execute its principal mission at the time of most need?” She asked. “There is clearly a disconnect here—Congress has a responsibility to understand what the return on that investment has been.”

Rodgers noted that CDC funding for non-communicable diseases increased by 150 percent between 2013 and 2014. Yet, the rate of chronic diseases increased during the same period and has continued to rise. 

“As the Committee responsible for overseeing the CDC, we must question the effectiveness of these programs, understand who at CDC is responsible for evaluating these programs, and whether these investments would be better directed elsewhere,” Rodgers said.

While the CDC is organized into 23 centers, institutes, and offices, each focusing on different facets of public health, the agency does not have a single, overarching statute that clearly defines its overall mission, structure, or programs—and many of its functions overlap with those of other government agencies. This leads to duplicative initiatives and financial waste, several members of the subcommittee suggested. 

Furthermore, many of the authorizations allowing the CDC to carry out its initiatives are expired. For example, the CDC’s fiscal year 2025 Congressional Budget Justification lists 29 programs with authorizations of appropriations that expired in fiscal year 2023 or earlier.  

CDC Avoids Real Issues Underlying Lack of Trust

During the hearing, the CDC avoided discussing its failings with the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, it focused on its increased efforts to collect data and initiatives to improve mental health outcomes—arguably caused by its bad policies—wastewater testing, suicide prevention, bird flu in animals, and its “readiness and response capacity” for viruses. 

The CDC did not acknowledge the real issues Americans have with the agency, such as the ever-increasing vaccination schedule, conflicts of interest with its advisory committee, the almost 2 million COVID-19 vaccine injuries reported to its VAERS database, or its inability to respond to Freedom of Information Act Requests. 

“The unfortunate truth is that Americans have lost faith in our public health agencies—particularly in the CDC,” Rodgers said. “The agency’s many failures rightfully led people to question whether the guidance being released was actually grounded in science, reason, or even common sense.”

Rodgers pointed out that even Dr. Anthony Fauci eventually admitted the six-foot social distancing rule “just kind of appeared.” More recently, Dr. Fauci said the decision to mandate the six-foot requirement came from the CDC. Yet the CDC has not explained how it came to its conclusion during that time, who was making the decisions on behalf of the agency, why it was issuing such guidance, and how that guidance would keep people safe. 

“These failures led to massive learning loss for our children that set them decades behind, a mental health crisis, and economic hardship,” she added. 

Dunn, a physician with experience in biological and chemical warfare, suggested the CDC has become vulnerable to political pressures and is wasting its funding by duplicating what other agencies are already doing instead of doing the work it should be doing—a concern he raised with CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen last November. Moreover, Dunn says the CDC is not adequately coordinating with other internal agencies. 

Dunn raised concerns about the illegal Chinese biolab discovered in California and the CDC’s “lackluster response” to handling pathogens associated with deadly diseases despite the fact it's the CDC’s stated mission to detect pathogens with pandemic potential. 

According to Dunn, the illegal lab was storing and experimenting with more than 20 dangerous pathogens, including ebola, HIV, and Sars-CoV-2. Yet the FBI, FDA, and CDC did nothing. Dunn said a lack of clearly defined agency roles may have contributed to how that situation was handled. 

“Who should the sheriff have called when the biolab was discovered?” Dunn asked the CDC. 

According to Dunn, a housing code inspector found the biolab. That housing inspector called the sheriff, who called the FBI, CDC, and FDA but received no response. 

Dr. Henry Walke, director of the CDC’s Office of Readiness and Response, said that normally, in a situation like this, the city and state public health departments should be the first to respond, but Dunn said the state health department was in over its head and called the same agencies.

“Nobody came for months,” Dunn said. “Who does the sheriff call next time? Because he didn’t get a response this time for months. I mean, people are jabbering back and forth, but nobody showed up with some wherewithal to actually take care of pathogens like that.” 

Dr. Walke said that normally, something like this would go through the state and local government, or someone could call the CDC’s watch team with their emergency operation center. 

“Do you imagine that states all have 50 little centers that can respond to something like that? This is a BSL 4-level crisis,” Dunn said. In the end, the local sheriff “cleaned up the mess,” which is “probably not a great idea.”

Reform Pharma Wants Change

Justine Tanguay, director of campaign and research for Reform Pharma, says these hearings are great, but the real issues are not being addressed. 

“The CDC is still not taking responsibility for the increase in children’s chronic health issues but instead continues to push vaccines,” Tanguay said.

“They repeatedly say they want transparency but are not forthcoming with data. CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen has encouraged the agency to build trust with actions, not words, but the hearing on Tuesday showed Americans that the agency is really not serious about improving health or re-establishing the trust it has broken with the American people.”