CDC chief to create new offices to boost public health response - Bloomberg News

[January 25, 2023]  (Reuters) -The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky is creating new offices as part of the agency's revamp to prioritize public health response, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.

The CDC had said in August it would undergo a series of changes after months of criticism over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Mpox outbreak.

Walensky is establishing an Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology aimed at closing up crucial gaps in monitoring for potential threats, the report said, citing a person who attended a town hall held on Tuesday at the agency's headquarters in Atlanta.

The CDC director is also forming an Office of Health Equity that will report to her team, Bloomberg said, adding more of the agency's units will report directly to her office.

"CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is reorganizing the agency so that it can respond faster and communicate its science and research more clearly," Walensky's deputy press secretary Kathleen Conley said in an emailed statement.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the monkeypox outbreak, in Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 14, 2022.

The reorganization is one step in a series of efforts designed to strengthen how CDC operates, Conley added.

The Bloomberg report added that Walensky has created a new position for a Director for External Affairs, which will focus on bolstering relationships with the government and nonprofits, although the role has not yet been filled.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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