Bushco's CDC On The Job

So yesterday, Dr. Julie Gerberding of the Centers for Disease Control told us here that the shortage of a childhood meningitis vaccine “should not become a public health threat.” Hopefully, Dr. Gerberding will be correct.

And today, the CDC thinks that it might be a good idea at long last to do formaldehyde testing of the trailers in which victims of Hurricane Katrina lived after they complained of health problems; about 90,000 people are living in the trailers, mostly in Louisiana and Mississippi with smaller numbers in Alabama and Texas (h/t The Daily Kos).

Proactivity, thy name is Bushco (I'll admit, though, that FEMA is the primary culprit on the slow response to the trailer issue).

And regarding the CDC itself, did you know that (according to here)…

Top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received premium bonuses in recent years at the expense of scientists and others who perform much of the agency's scientific work, agency records show.

..

From 2002 through mid-2006, William H. Gimson III, the agency's chief operating officer, received bonuses totaling $147,863, which included seven cash awards of more than $2,500. Mr. Gimson's bonuses were about twice the amount granted to any other C.D.C. employee, the agency's records show. (Spokesman Tom) Skinner said Mr. Gimson was not immediately available for comment.

Mr. Gimson's deputy, Barbara W. Harris, received six premium bonuses of $2,500 or more from 2002 through mid-2006 for a total of $84,894, agency records show.

Mr. Skinner said Ms. Harris was also not available for comment.

…

Before Dr. Gerberding's appointment, members of the C.D.C. director's inner circle rarely received premium bonuses of $2,500 or more. After her arrival, in July 2002, such cash awards increased, the records obtained by The Times show.

…

Because bonus money is limited -- about 1.5 percent of the personnel budget, Mr. Skinner said -- the growing share of premium bonuses for Dr. Gerberding's close advisers has meant less money is available for some scientists and other workers.

The story also notes that, as of September 2006, Dr. Gerberding was under investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, though I could not find any information about that from the committee’s web site (and also, since the CDC is a very important government scientific agency, of course Bushco has to keep it “under its thumb” as it does here).

I realize that the meningitis vaccine recall is Merck’s decision and not the CDCs, but it is the CDC’s responsibility to let us know if this poses a danger and formulate a plan in response (and the “only 92 percent” statistic quoted in the Times story doesn’t fill me with confidence, since were talking about what are probably millions of kids here, and hopefully the backup vaccine from the other drugmaker will be sufficient).

And IMHO, some of the background information on the CDC presented here is enough of a cause for concern at the very least, if for no other reason than for concerns about agency morale.