The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light a disturbing reality; the C.D.C. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) is not good at either control or prevention. Unfortunately, our reliance on their guidance in this pandemic made the situation worse.
In February 2020, just as the pandemic was coming into the country, these bureaucrats told the American people they did not need to wear face masks to reduce the virus' spread. I was receiving in-house health care while recovering from heart surgery. When I asked the nurses why they did not wear masks, they said they followed C.D.C. guidelines. Later, of course, the agency reversed this and encouraged masks and mask mandates. By then, the pandemic was in full swing, and I was not letting the nurses in the house.
Due to aggressive government action, Japan managed to keep COVID-19 in check. Much of the credit goes to the nation's fondness for face masks. It is a culture of people that will wear face masks for various reasons with no stigma attached. So, when COVID-19 hit their country, the Japanese put on the face coverings. There was a surge from the Olympics, which showed what happens when a bunch of unmasked, unvaccinated people came into the Land of the Rising Sun. Japan currently ranks twenty-fourth in COVID-19 related deaths, and most of those with lower numbers have smaller populations. The C.D.C merely had to look across the Pacific to see that face masks work.
It is not as though this disease blindsided the C.D.C. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a variation of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), and it was known back in 2003 that SARS traveled through the air. Even the C.D.C.'s own documents acknowledge this. So why did they not encourage masks at the beginning of this crisis? How many Americans died because of the C.S.C.'s lack of robust support for face masks?
This confusing behavior of the C.D.C. has given ammunition to those who want to make a political issue out of wearing masks. Right-wing politicians like to say that mask mandates are tyranny. If that is so, then aren't laws requiring people to wear clothes in public also tyranny? I would say they are even more so. After all, the mask mandates are to prevent the spread of a deadly disease. The clothing law serves no life-saving purpose. If the C.D.C. had come out of the gate pushing face masks, this nonsense would not have had room to grow the way it did.
Then there is the matter of the C.D.C.'s sloppy handling of testing for the virus. Here we have a deadly disease gripping the country, and the leadership of this organization insists they must provide the only test, and when they do, it fails. Meanwhile, under the World Health Organization guidance, other countries tested and learned more about the virus from these tests. Most experts agree that if testing in the United States had begun sooner, the casualties would have been lower.
This catastrophic pandemic has taken over seven hundred and twenty-two thousand American lives, more than any other country in the world. Some lessons from this dreadful experience must be learned and applied. Granted, good presidential leadership has not been forthcoming in this crisis. But the rhetoric of political leaders should not influence what is supposed to be an outfit dedicated to scientific pursuit. There is a fault here with the agency whose purpose is to protect the American people from rampant disease. We seriously need to look at the structure and function of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. As the world's population grows and moves around the planet, the probabilities of another pandemic following this one are high. We need a C.D.C. that can respond appropriately.
