More than 1,000 current and former CDC officers criticize U.S. COVID-19 response

Former CDC directors Tom Frieden and Jeffrey Koplan, along with 1,042 other past and present officials at the agency, have attached their names to an open letter decrying the national response to COVID-19. The signers, all connected to CDC’s special Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of outbreak investigators, believe the agency is being controlled by political influences and kept from its public health mission. “The absence of national leadership on COVID-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” read the letter, which appeared Friday in the Epidemiology Monitor. “CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency.” While CDC and the Trump administration defended the agency’s work on the pandemic, recent survey results suggest that public trust in the agency is flagging.