Layoffs hit many at CDC lab program that was started to address previous failures
NEW YORK — The nation’s top public health agency is losing most of the scientists in a prestigious, but lesser-known, laboratory program that has become a mainstay of outbreak responses. The leadership program was created in the wake of a series of lab failures, including an incident in which a CDC lab scientist in Atlanta accidentally mixed a deadly strain of bird flu with a tamer strain and another in which a CDC lab failed to kill anthrax samples before sending them to two labs with fewer safeguards for containing dangerous germs. The leadership program brought in doctorate-holding professionals who could help the CDC and state health labs improve testing while complying with demanding federal standards. This not the way to make America healthier,” former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden wrote on LinkedIn about the lab program cuts.
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