34 Facts About CDC

1.

The CDC focuses national attention on developing and applying disease control and prevention.

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2.

The CDC conducts research and provides information on non-infectious diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, and is a founding member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes.

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3.

Since 2020, the CDC has faced scrutiny for its handing of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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4.

Under Joseph Walter Mountin, the CDC continued to be an advocate for public health issues and pushed to extend its responsibilities to many other communicable diseases.

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5.

In 1947, the CDC made a token payment of $10 to Emory University for 15 acres of land on Clifton Road in DeKalb County, still the home of CDC headquarters as of 2019.

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6.

Since the 1990s, the CDC focus has broadened to include chronic diseases, disabilities, injury control, workplace hazards, environmental health threats, and terrorism preparedness.

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7.

CDC combats emerging diseases and other health risks, including birth defects, West Nile virus, obesity, avian, swine, and pandemic flu, E coli, and bioterrorism, to name a few.

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8.

In May 1994 the CDC admitted having sent samples of communicable diseases to the Iraqi government from 1984 through 1989 which were subsequently repurposed for biological warfare, including Botulinum toxin, West Nile virus, Yersinia pestis and Dengue fever virus.

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9.

In 2014, the CDC revealed they had discovered several misplaced smallpox samples while their lab workers were 'potentially infected' with anthrax.

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10.

The CDC had requested that the Atlanta city government annex the area.

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11.

CDC outlined an overhaul of how the CDC would analyze and share data and how they would communicate information to the general public.

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12.

CDC is organized into "Centers, Institutes, and Offices", with each organizational unit implementing the agency's activities in a particular area of expertise while providing intra-agency support and resource-sharing for cross-cutting issues and specific health threats.

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13.

Generally, CDC "Offices" are subdivided into Centers, which in turn are composed of Divisions and Branches.

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14.

The CDC offers grants to help organizations advance health, safety and awareness at the community level in the United States.

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15.

The CDC operates a number of notable training and fellowship programs, including those indicated below.

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16.

CDC operates the Public Health Associate Program, a two-year paid fellowship for recent college graduates to work in public health agencies all over the United States.

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17.

The CDC's website has information on various infectious diseases, including smallpox, measles, and others.

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18.

CDC implemented their National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria as a measure against the spread of antibiotic resistance in the United States.

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19.

CDC has been working with the WHO to implement the International Health Regulations, an agreement between 196 countries to prevent, control, and report on the international spread of disease, through initiatives including the Global Disease Detection Program.

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20.

CDC has been involved in implementing the US global health initiatives President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and President's Malaria Initiative.

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21.

CDC uses a number of tools to monitor the safety of vaccines.

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22.

CDC Foundation operates independently from CDC as a private, nonprofit 501 organization incorporated in the State of Georgia.

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23.

The Tuskegee Study was initiated in 1932 by the Public Health Service, with the CDC taking over the Tuskegee Health Benefit Program in 1995.

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24.

In October 2014, the CDC gave a nurse with a fever who was later diagnosed with Ebola permission to board a commercial flight to Cleveland.

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25.

CDC has been widely criticized for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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26.

Later investigations by the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services found that the CDC had violated its own protocols in developing its tests.

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27.

In November 2020, NPR reported that an internal review document they obtained revealed that the CDC was aware that the first batch of tests which were issued in early January had a chance of being wrong 33 percent of the time, but they released them anyway.

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28.

In May 2020, The Atlantic reported that the CDC was conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests — tests that diagnose current coronavirus infections, and tests that measure whether someone has ever had the virus.

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29.

In September 2020, the CDC drafted an order requiring masks on all public transportation in the United States, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force blocked the order, refusing to discuss it, according to two federal health officials.

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30.

In May 2021, following criticism by scientists, the CDC updated its COVID-19 guidance to acknowledge airborne transmission of COVID-19, after having previously claimed that the majority of infections occurred via "close contact, not airborne transmission".

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31.

Until 2022, the CDC withheld critical data about COVID-19 vaccine boosters, hospitalizations and wastewater data.

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32.

On June 10,2022, the Biden Administration ordered the CDC to remove the COVID-19 testing requirement for air travelers entering the United States.

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33.

Historically, the CDC has not been a political agency; however, the COVID-19 pandemic, and specifically the Trump Administration's handling of the pandemic, resulted in a "dangerous shift" according to a previous CDC director and others.

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34.

Once the blog article was posted, the CDC announced an open contest for YouTube submissions of the most creative and effective videos covering preparedness for a zombie apocalypse, to be judged by the "CDC Zombie Task Force".

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