Embracing Controversy: A Second Look at CDC Reforms After Covid-19 

Series: Carol D’Onofrio Lecture in Public Health
Addressing criticism that the agency’s Covid-19 response was lacking, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has proposed internal agency reforms intended to improve its performance during the next pandemic. This talk offers a critique of reform efforts that imply that failure-free performance is achievable if the agency simply improves its access to information collection and processing. Drawing from social science scholarship that addresses the social processes that support scientific learning and policymaking in contested political environments, I ask whether science-informed policy can emerge without controversy and deliberation. Finally, this talk examines what standards public health officials can be held to when one replaces the goal of omniscience with one of transparent learning.
Speaker: Ann Keller, Associate Professor of Health Politics, UC Berkeley School of Public Health