OPINION: CDC criticized for conservative, slow guidance statements

CDC’s slow, cautious Covid-19 messaging seems out of step with moment Even defenders of the agency's approach admitted that its guidance has been conservative, and at times slow. Nicholas Florko STAT

WASHINGTON — Nearly a year ago, amid concerns about how to prevent transmission of the virus causing Covid-19, scientists were beginning to conclude that rigorous disinfection of surfaces — say, fogging them or deep-cleaning with bleach — was overkill.

Academics were warning that the risk of so-called fomite transmission was wildly overblown. In the fall, research from Israel and Italy found that the virus couldn’t even be cultured from surfaces in hospital infectious disease units. By February of this year, the editorial board of Nature was openly urging the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to update its guidelines.

The CDC did so — last month.

That so much time passed before the nation’s leading public health agency took a stand on an issue that seemed patently obvious to others was puzzling. But it was hardly an isolated incident.

After months of pleas from scientists, the CDC acknowledged last week that Covid-19 can be spread through small particles floating in the air — an acknowledgment that came more than a year after some experts began warning that the virus is airborne. Separately, it took three months after Covid-19 vaccines began going into arms before the CDC issued its first attempt at outlining the activities vaccinated people could safely undertake.

When the CDC issued new guidelines recently on when people still need to wear masks, the guidelines were seen as so conservative that they prompted a primetime rant on “The Daily Show.”

“I know science is difficult … but who’s running messaging at the CDC?” asked the show’s host, Trevor Noah.

Some public health experts are asking the same question. Most experts interviewed for this story say the agency has struggled to take advantage of the latest scientific findings to communicate as rapidly as possible with the American public. And when the guidance is issued, it tends to be overly cautious.

The explanation does not seem to be, as it might have been under the Trump administration, political interference. Rather, “there is a certain mentality when it comes to [caution] that I believe has been detrimental,” said Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy at George Washington University.

Even defenders of the CDC’s approach admitted that the agency has been conservative, and at times slow.

“I admit it is a conservative approach, and they have historically always been very conservative,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, who largely defended the CDC and insisted that the agency has followed the science.  ...