It's Your Week. Are we getting mixed signals, CDC?
Welcome to Your Week – I'm Sallee Ann Harrison. I'm new here, and maybe you are, too.
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Health officials to CDC: Its not us, it's you
You may have seen the memes.
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed isolation recommendations from 10 to five days, people on the internet started giving their own recommendations.
Jokes aside, health experts who have stood by the CDC and its science-based decisions since the beginning of the pandemic are now criticizing the agency for poor communication.
“The CDC can’t do anything until it acknowledges it has a messaging problem,” said Peter Pitts, president and co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a patient advocacy group. “Americans don’t understand what they need to understand. So they can’t always do the right thing as quickly as possible.”
Health experts' main issues with the CDC's communication?
Inconsistent transparency in citing the science behind decisions.
Local health departments and national organizations left out of the agency's decision-making.
Inconsistent accountability.
You can read the full analysis here. But tell us: How are you managing changing guidelines in these unprecedented times? Feeling confident? Unsure? Let us know at yourweek@usatoday.com.
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Thank you for reading! See you same time, same place next week. -SA
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Your Week: CDC communication problems, NFL wild card weekend
