Five years after the peak of Covid-19, as the nation searches for its , the most immediate threat to U.S. pandemic preparedness may not be a novel virus, but the erosion of public trust. The country remains vulnerable as avian influenza spreads, vaccination rates decline, and outbreaks of measles and dengue reemerge.
Without restoring confidence in the CDC, even the strongest scientific guidance will fall short of protecting the public, as well as the nation鈥檚 economic stability and security.
Covid-19 caused in this country and in doing so exposed a fundamental truth: The CDC did not fail for lack of expertise, but from a loss of focus, speed, and credibility. Early in the pandemic, the inability to deploy reliable diagnostic testing left the nation unprepared at a critical moment. Fragmented data systems across states and jurisdictions produced delayed and inconsistent information, forcing policymakers to make high-stakes decisions in a fog.
These operational failures were compounded by flawed communication. Scientific uncertainty is inevitable in such a crisis and should be acknowledged with humility. Instead, public guidance was at times delivered with unwarranted confidence and revised too slowly as evidence evolved. Ultimately, ineffective and harmful measures, such as prolonged school closures and restrictions on outdoor activity, were implemented without clearly communicating expected benefits, limitations, and trade-offs. When guidance changed, as it should in a dynamic situation, those shifts were often insufficiently explained. The results were predictable: confusion, frustration, and an erosion of confidence.
Not surprisingly, public trust declined sharply. According to , confidence in public health officials fell from 79% in March 2020 to 54% by September 2022. Credibility is the CDC鈥檚 most essential asset. Without public confidence, even sound recommendations will fail to marshal broad support.
The CDC stands at an inflection point. As new leadership is considered, the lesson of the pandemic is not that the agency should be weakened, but that it must be refocused after drifting from its core mission. Restoring trust will require disciplined reform and leadership that is prepared to implement it.
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Charles J. Lockwood, M.D., is executive vice president of USF Health, dean of the 91社区鈥檚 Morsani College of Medicine, and a member of the Global Virus Network board of directors. Robert C. Gallo, M.D., is founding director of the 91社区鈥檚 Institute for Translational Virology & Innovation and co-founder and international scientific director of the Global Virus Network. He is best known for his pioneering discovery of human retroviruses, including HIV as the cause of AIDS. Sten H. Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., is senior associate vice president of USF Health, dean of the 91社区 College of Public Health, and chief medical officer of the Global Virus Network.