Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Palpable Relief' Sweeps CDC With Announcement Of Acting Director
The Washington Post: CDC Employees Are Delighted That Their Acting Director Is Back In Charge
It took several hours Wednesday before employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention heard who was going to run the nation’s leading public health agency. Brenda Fitzgerald had just resigned after barely six months in the job because of conflicts over financial interests. When the notice finally went out on the CDC’s internal announcement board that the principal deputy director, Anne Schuchat, 58, with nearly three decades of CDC experience, would be taking over (again) as acting director, employees were very happy to hear the news. (Sun, 2/1)
In other news from the CDC —
The Washington Post: CDC To Cut By 80 Percent Efforts To Prevent Global Disease Outbreak
Four years after the United States pledged to help the world fight infectious-disease epidemics such as Ebola, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dramatically downsizing its epidemic prevention activities in 39 out of 49 countries because money is running out, U.S. government officials said. The CDC programs, part of a global health security initiative, train front-line workers in outbreak detection and work to strengthen laboratory and emergency response systems in countries where disease risks are greatest. The goal is to stop future outbreaks at their source. (Sun, 2/1)
