The new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used her first agency-wide staff meeting to say out loud what her workforce already knew. Programs Congress funded do not have the people to run them; employees are burned out, and the agency has been operating without an advocate at the top.
Dr. Erica Schwartz, who took over the Atlanta-based agency last week after roughly a year of acting leadership, spoke Wednesday at her first all-hands gathering. The Associated Press reported the contents from a recording of the meeting, and NBC News separately reviewed a transcript.
