Comment Unlock This article is free to access. Why; The Biden administration is reorganizing the federal health department to create an independent division to lead the nation’s response to the pandemic, amid frustrations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move elevates a roughly 1,000-person office within the department — known as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR — into a separate The department, charged with coordinating the nation’s response to health emergencies, according to seven people briefed on the plan who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, and a memo obtained by The Washington Post . The reorganization allows the department “to mobilize a coordinated national response more quickly and steadily to future disasters and emergencies, while equipping us with greater recruiting and contracting capabilities,” wrote Dawn O’Connell, who leads ASPR and will direct the new department. Wednesday afternoon. The emailed memo was shared with The Post. The creation of the new Strategic Preparedness and Response Administration, which is expected to be phased in over two years, comes at a time of growing concern about the federal government’s ability to respond to health emergencies — either once in a while a century pandemic driven by a new virus such as SARS-CoV-2, to an outbreak of a long-recognized pathogen such as monkeypox, which has established treatments and vaccines. The change also comes amid growing frustrations within the government over bureaucratic delays that officials believe have hampered their work. For example, Biden health officials seeking to obtain faster tests for the coronavirus as the Omicron variant ramped up last winter faced challenges securing the necessary contracts, a senior administration official said. is not authorized to comment. Officials in other divisions of the health department said they supported the plan. CDC spokesman Kevin Griffis said in a statement that the agency “supports Assistant Secretary O’Connell’s vision for ASPR — a critical partner for us in addressing public health threats. We will continue to work closely together to promote and protect the health of the American people.” While the existing ASPR has played a key role in responding to the coronavirus and other health care crises, it has often been embroiled in turf wars with other agencies, including a heated conflict with the CDC over the evacuation of Americans infected with the coronavirus from Asia in early of 2020. as well as other pandemic decisions. Tensions predate the pandemic. ASPR oversees the Strategic National Stockpile after a bitter battle with the CDC over which agency would control it. Some Biden officials have argued privately that those challenges could be avoided by authorizing the office to be on par with the CDC and other independent divisions of the Health and Human Services Department, such as the Food and Drug Administration, the senior official said administration. But some public health experts have cautioned that a critical part of responding to the pandemic is working with state and local health agencies, noting that the CDC has a much stronger relationship than ASPR with those frontline groups. O’Connell on Tuesday called members of Congress to brief them on the administration’s plan, according to people familiar with the calls. HHS has the authority to continue its reorganization without congressional approval, these people said. But some senior Biden administration officials said Wednesday they were unaware of the plan, which has been kept close by the health department. O’Connell has privately supported the plan, saying her office needs more authority to hire staff, oversee contracts and more flexibility to respond to emerging crises. In addition to its work on the pandemic, the office helped coordinate Operation Fly Formula, the effort to quickly import infant formula from abroad to address shortages in the US. O’Connell previously served as Obama’s senior health official and director of US operations for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness and Innovations. We continue to make progress with our public and private sector partners bringing in more infant formula to help American families. By July 17th, we will have imported more than 55 million 8oz bottle equivalents to help restock store shelves. pic.twitter.com/C2b76yLRC0 — Dawn O’Connell (@HHS_ASPR) July 11, 2022 O’Connell emphasized in an interview that CDC’s relationship with state public health agencies “is critical and we rely on it as we distribute vaccines and therapeutics in a completely collaborative and supportive way. There is certainly room in this pandemic for each of to do our own lines of work while working collectively as part of a larger response team.” ASPR was founded in 2006, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters that taxed the nation’s emergency response. But the office, which operates out of the federal health department’s headquarters in Washington, has often clashed with the much larger CDC, which is based in Atlanta, employs about 13,000 people and has historically led the coronavirus response and other disease outbreaks. “It’s long overdue,” said Robert Kadlec, who led ASPR during the Trump administration and now advises Sen. Richard Burr (RN.C.), the top Republican on the Senate health committee. Kadlec said the change would clarify the responsibilities of officials in emergency responses. “I had asked for it in my last year. No luck.” Federal watchdogs blame confusion between ASPR and CDC responsibilities, saying the conflicts have undermined the pandemic response. The Government Accountability Office last year released its investigation into one episode — a chaotic effort to return hundreds of Americans to the United States in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak — warning that infighting between ASPR and other agencies had led to security failures that put the displaced persons, federal officials, and even US communities at risk. “Until HHS revises or develops new plans that clarify agency roles and responsibilities during a repatriation in response to a pandemic, it will not be able to prevent the coordination and health and safety issues it faced during COVID-19 repatriation response to future pandemic emergencies. ,” the GAO concluded. But other experts have warned that shifting responsibilities to ASPR could undermine emergency response and noted that it does not face longstanding challenges at the CDC. “This is a strategic mistake and will create more confusion, indecision and delays in responding to pandemic crises,” said Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner during the Trump administration and has advised both Trump administrations as well as Biden. on its response to the coronavirus. “The CDC has all the response tools and the expertise. At the end of the day, CDC needs to own this, and if they can’t execute it well, it needs to be fixed.” Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
