CDC: Our Tax Dollars At Work

A Practical Illustration of This Administration's Transparency

It's clear that President Obama's policy of "Transparency" hasn't made it as far south as the home of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.

As a follow-up to my morning post on the National Steak & Poultry E. coli O157:H7 recall and outbreak, I posed five questions to Lola Russell, a CDC Media Relations officer. Ms. Russell promptly passed these questions along to the CDC's epidemiologists, and forwarded their response to me.

Here is what I learned.

Question 1. Which state reported the October 3rd onset case (the first case in the outbreak series)?

Answer 1. "CDC does not discuss individual cases from states since they are regulatory entities and manage their own investigations. If the state issues press regarding their onset dates and cases we will then include that information in our web posting."

Question 2. I am advised by Minnesota – as of January 5th – that their three cases have no common epidemiological elements with the other cases, except that they match the PFGE pattern. Can you comment on any newer information, either lab or epidemiological, that links these cases to the outbreak or explains their source?

Answer 2. "CDC does not discuss individual cases from states since they are regulatory entities and manage their own investigations. If the state issues press regarding their onset dates and cases we will then include that information in our web posting."

Question 3. Has anyone - CDC, FSIS, or a state lab – recovered the outbreak strain from a sample of National Steak & Poultry meat?

Answer 3. "Question 3 refers to the recalled product from the company and is best answered by USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS)."

Question 4. Please provide me with the names of the restaurants, or at least the restaurant chains, that are linked to this outbreak.

Answer 4. "Whether the recalled product is linked to specific restaurants under investigation is best answered by USDA's FSIS, the regulatory agency in charge of the traceback investigation."

Question 5. Can you explain why it took so long for CDC to post a summary of this outbreak investigation? Was it simply the holiday period that interfered?

Answer 5. "CDC does not post web updates for every investigation. When we do, we coordinate this process closely with both the states and and the regulatory agency (FSIS in this case) and need to verify all the information with these partners prior to public release of the information."

Um....

Several state agencies suggested that I contact CDC for this information. Am I missing something here?