Will the CDC be Worse Sans Gerberding?

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CDC director leaves fractured legacy

By CRAIG SCHNEIDER, JEFFRY SCOTT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Saturday, January 10, 2009http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/stories/2009/01/10/cdc_director_legacy.html

Since President-elect Barack Obama

accepted the resignation of the head of the nation’s public health

agency last week, her admirers and detractors have been arguing about

her legacy and the future of the Atlanta-based research center. During Dr. Gerberding’s six years directing the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention, critics lambasted her for sacrificing

science for politics, accusing her of carrying the Bush agenda on global warming and other issues into the world of scientific research. Her defenders countered that she kept the agency above political

concerns and expanded its mission to include bioterrorism research,

combating AIDS globally and responding to national health threats. They

say the government is losing a strong leader who could have provided

continuity for the years ahead. New administrations often clean house at the top of their agencies.

Gerberding’s resignation, effective Jan. 20, became public Friday. She

was unavailable for comment Saturday. Some health care advocates said they hope a change in leadership

spurs a change in direction and priorities for the agency that employs

9,000 people and has a budget of $9 billion. “In the last eight years across the board in government, politics

has been trumping science,†said Jeff Levi, executive director of the

Trust for America’s Health, a public health watchdog group based in

Washington, D.C. Levi said he hopes the new administration “returns to science as the basis of policy.†Gerberding — the CDC’s

first female director — was criticized in 2007 after it was alleged she

let the White House censor her congressional testimony on climate

change. A deleted section of the testimony included the statement that

“catastrophic weather events such as heat waves and hurricanes are expected to become more frequent, severe and costly.†Gerberding said at the time that the White House review process was

customary, and that she said she spoke openly and without constraint. CDC

spokesman Tom Skinner said Saturday, “Dr. Gerberding is a very strong

person when it comes to her integrity. She was never muzzled or

constrained.†Debra Lappin, a health consultant who serves on the advisory board to the CDC

director, said Gerberding has not played politics with her position.

“Her commitment to science cuts across the aisle,†she said in an

interview late last year. A fractured view of Gerberding’s tenure emerged in interviews Saturday. Terrence Manning, head of the government employees union at CDC,

which represents 1,800 of non-scientist employees, said she was a

“people person†who “did the best she could with what was given.†But Francesca Grifo, a director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, said she spoke to CDC researchers who were “cheering†the departure of the director. Gerberding’s critics say her 2003 reorganization of CDC prompted an exodus of key scientific staff. While some CDC

watchers tossed out names of possible Gerberding replacements, others

focused on the direction the agency will take under a new director. Levi, of the Washington watchdog group, said the CDC should place greater emphasis on preventing illness, such as heart disease and diabetes. Helene Gayle, president of the Atlanta-based CARE USA, which battles hunger across the world, said CDC should focus less on fighting bioterrorism and more on combating disease. On the other hand, U.S. Sen. ny Isakson (R-Ga.) praised

Gerberding for transforming the agency into a force against

bioterrorism. “She’s done an outstanding job overseeing those things

while continuing to guide the CDC on its mission of fighting disease around the world,†Isakson said. Among the candidates for CDC

director whose names have surfaced in the public health community,

according to advocates, are CARE president Gayle, New York City health

commissioner Dr. Frieden, Baltimore health commissioner Dr.

Sharfstein, and Los Angeles health director Dr.

Fielding. WWII – a war that cost the lives of more than 60 million people – was planned and financed by the world’s largest chemical/ pharmaceutical cartel. At that time Germany’s I.G. Farben consisted of Bayer, BASF, Hoechst and others.- Dr Mathius Rath

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