Michael Taylor - testimony

Go here for the Sept. 17 testimony of Michael Taylor before the House agriculture appropriations subcommittee. What the system lacks, Taylor said, are these elements;


Focused Federal Leadership and Accountability – FDA, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) (when meat and poultry may be involved) each play important roles in multi-state outbreaks, but no single federal agency or official is clearly in charge and accountable for the overall management of the effort.
Well-Defined Institutional Roles – Federal, state and local agencies necessarily collaborate on multi-state outbreaks, but the collaboration is essentially ad hoc: there are no formally established mechanisms or protocols for such collaboration or even clarity about when responsibility for managing an outbreak properly shifts from the state or local level to the federal.
Necessary Expertise and Capacity – The expertise and capacity of state and local agencies vary widely, and, in general, due to chronic under funding and lack of sufficient staff dedicated to outbreak investigations, capacity at all levels of government is thin.
Effective TracebackSystems– There is no effective system for ensuring rapid government access to critical traceback information, which places extra burdens on already strained resources and delays investigations.
Seamless Data Collection and Sharing – There are no standardized approaches to collecting and analyzing epidemiological data, which undercuts the scientific foundations of a multi-state investigation; and conflicting interests and policies often obstruct the flow of information among agencies that should be operating as a cohesive team in managing a multi-state outbreak.
Industry Engagement – There are no established mechanisms for tapping the expertise of the food industry on such matters as industry structure, practices, and distribution patterns, which could both expedite and improve the accuracy of investigations.
Coordinated Public Communication – The lack of clarity about who is in charge of an investigation can result in lack of clarity in communicating with the public, as information about an outbreak is commonly made available from multiple government sources.