The CDC’s ‘Medical CIA’ Failed America on the Pandemic

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar speaks during a press conference on the coordinated public health response to the CCP virus outbreak on Jan. 28, 2020, in Washington, D.C. With Secretary Alex Azar is (from left to right) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Director Nancy Messonnier, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. Samuel Corum/Getty Images

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) deploys the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) to protect the nation against epidemics. In the throes of a pandemic, Americans have good cause to regard the vaunted “medical CIA” as a failure.

As Diana Robeletto Scalera of the CDC Foundation explains, the EIS “works day and night domestically and globally to ensure epidemics in other countries do not hit American soil.” EIS disease detectives “are the ones responsible and they take this role very seriously.”

According to the CDC, “EIS officers serve on the front lines of public health, protecting Americans and the global community.” When diseases and public health threats emerge, “EIS officers investigate, identify the cause, rapidly implement control measures, and collect evidence to recommend preventive actions.”

Whatever causes and threats they identified in China, the EIS officers failed to prevent the COVID-19 virus from arriving on American soil. Embattled Americans have a right to wonder what these intrepid disease detectives are really about.

“The focus of this elite unit was on activism rather than research,” and they act as the “eyes and ears” of the CDC, according to Peter H. Duesberg, author of “Inventing the AIDS Virus“ and former professor of molecular biology at University of California–Berkeley. As Duesberg explains, EIS officers “constitute an informal surveillance network,” and “they can act as unrecognized advocates for the CDC viewpoint.”

EIS alums Jonathan Mann and Michael Merson directed the global AIDS program for the World Health Organization. Lawrence Altman became the head medical writer for The New York Times, and fellow EIS officer Bruce Dan was a medical editor with ABC News and a senior editor at the influential Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to the CDC, Dr. Nancy Messonnier began her career in 1995 as an EIS officer and moved on to become director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). Messonnier is a “champion for the prevention of disease” and her agency headed “the effort to support the COVID-19 vaccine program.”

On Feb. 26, 2020, Messonnier hosted a telebriefing update on COVID-19. Reporter Craig Fiegener from KNX 1070 news radio in Los Angeles was curious about China.

“Is the Chinese government leveling with you?” Fiegener wanted to know. “Are they telling you the truth?” Given the likely origin of the pandemic in Wuhan, China, it was a question of some significance.

“In terms of the Chinese government,” Messonnier responded, “there has been a WHO team on the ground in China as well in Wuhan. There are data coming out from those efforts. We have a lot of information from China.” The reporters wouldn’t get any of the information from China, but the response had been revealing.

Messonnier evidently considers the World Health Organization (WHO) the official publicity agent for the Chinese regime. Messonnier offered no judgment on the truthfulness of data from the WHO, a faithful echo chamber for China under current boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

On Jan. 30, 2020, Tedros opposed a travel ban from China, saying, “China is actually setting a new standard in terms of the outbreak response. We would have seen many more cases outside China by now, and probably deaths, if not for the government’s efforts.”

Messonnier didn’t say whether she or the CDC agreed with the WHO’s China-friendly director. Like her National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) colleague Dr. Anthony Fauci, Messonnier’s biography shows no advanced degrees in biochemistry or molecular biology, so strictly speaking, Messonnier is not a virologist.

The symbol of the EIS is a shoe sole worn through with a hole, supposedly to signify the relentless pursuit of infectious diseases. Americans currently find a gaping hole in their knowledge of what the EIS was up to in 2019 and 2020.

Who did the EIS have on the ground in China? What did they know about developments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and when did they know it? Did the EIS know that the WIV had received shipments of deadly pathogens from a lab in Canada? Did the EIS recommend that the National Institutes of Health fund China’s lab?

Did the EIS know that the WIV conducted dangerous “gain of function” research that enhances “the pathogenicity or transmissibility of potential pandemic pathogens?” Did the EIS, WHO, CDC, and Fauci’s NIAID coordinate any messaging on China’s role in the pandemic?

The people who pay the bills, and who have suffered so much, have the right to know. Congress should mount a full-scale investigation, with CDC and EIS bosses testifying under oath.

If no answers emerge, Americans could be forgiven for believing that their vaunted medical CIA is nothing more than a network of informers in the service of the CDC viewpoint. When it comes to the current pandemic, the CDC’s viewpoint seems a lot like China’s.

Lloyd Billingsley is the author of “Yes I Con: United Fakes of America,” “Barack ‘em Up: A Literary Investigation,” “Hollywood Party,” and other books. His articles have appeared in many publications, including Frontpage Magazine, City Journal, The Wall Street Journal, and American Greatness. Billingsley serves as a policy fellow with the Independent Institute.