The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is an agency of the United States Federal Government. It operates within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It has previously been called the Communicable Disease Center, the National Communicable Disease Center, the Center for Disease Control, and the Centers for Disease Control.[1]
The Communicable Disease Center was founded on July 1, 1946 as the successor to the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas (MCWA).[2] Originally created during World War II under the United States Public Health Service, MCWA was tasked with killing disease-carrying mosquitos by spraying insecticides in and around military facilities.[1:1] Starting with a chemical called Paris Green, MCWA also used diesel gas before switching to DDT in 1944.
MCWA quickly expanded its activities to the wider, nascent public health system, including spraying neighbourhoods with DDT and focusing on additional diseases such as yellow fever and dengue.
At the end of World War II, MCWA was replaced a new agency called the Community Disease Center (CDC), which continued its program to apply DDT to the interiors of homes for several more years.[3]
Since 1947, the scope of CDC’s mandate has continued to expand, along with several name changes. CDC added veterinary and epidemiology divisions, and responded to the Cold War by creating the Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1951. The focus of the agency shifted towards laboratory science, before expanding beyond the realm of infectious diseases to include nutrition, chronic disease and occupational health. In 1967, the agency changed its name to the National Communicable Disease Center, before opting for the Center for Disease Control in 1970. The plural version of the name was introduced in 1980.
On March 29, 1983, the United States Congress amended the Public Health Service Act to allow the CDC to accept "unconditional and conditional gifts…for the benefit of the Public Health Service or for the carrying out of any of its functions."[4][5]
The Centers for Disease Control was renamed a final time on October 27, 1992 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[6]
On February 4, 2020, the CDC published a document titled "CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - Instructions for Use," in which they claim that "no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available." As such, the first polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were designed based on the full-length transcribed nucleocapsid protein of the virus as it appeared on GenBank.[7]
Subsequent revisions of the document maintained this language until Revision 5, published July 13, 2020.[8] Revision 6, published December 1, 2020, finally updated the statement to read that no isolates were "available for CDC use at the time the test was developed and [the] study conducted."[9]
On May 5, 2023, the CDC announcement it would be retiring the V-safe vaccine adverse event reporting system as of May 19.[10][11]
On January 5, 2024, the CDC was ordered to release the "free-text" entries of adverse event reports to its V-safe monitoring system following a lawsuit by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN).[12]
CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - Instructions for Use
Parascandola, J. (1996). From MCWA to CDC--origins of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public Health Reports, 111(6), 549–551. PubMed. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1381908/pdf/pubhealthrep00045-0079.pdf ↩︎ ↩︎
United States Office of Malaria Control in War Areas. (1992). Office of Malaria Control in War Areas 1942-1944 : origins and activities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20230329051642/https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/109499 ↩︎
CDC Global Health Center, Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria. (2018, July 23). Elimination of Malaria in the United States (1947-1951). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20230930231258/https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/history/elimination_us.html ↩︎
Gifts to CDC. (2016, December 8). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20170123011302/https://www.cdc.gov/partners/gift-funding.html ↩︎
Knowledge Ecology International, Liberty Coalition, Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen, & U.S. Right to Know. (2019, November 5). CITIZEN PETITION TO CDC: Cease use of false disclaimers that CDC does not accept commercial support, because CDC does accept commercial support and CDC does have financial relationships with product manufacturers. U.S. Right to Know. https://web.archive.org/web/20231016112224/https://usrtk.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Petition-to-CDC-re-Disclaimers.pdf ↩︎
Announcement of CDC Name Change. (1992). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 41(43), 829–830. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://archive.today/2023.10.17-194237/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00017962.htm ↩︎
Division of Viral Diseases. (2020, February 4). CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - For Emergency Use Only - Instructions for Use. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20200205171727/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download ↩︎
Division of Viral Diseases. (2020, July 13). CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - For Emergency Use Only - Instructions for Use. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20200831132620/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download ↩︎
Division of Viral Diseases. (2020, December 1). CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel - For Emergency Use Only - Instructions for Use. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://web.archive.org/web/20210401090824/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download ↩︎
Kekatos, M. (2023, May 9). CDC won’t track COVID transmission levels anymore in major shift. ABC News. https://web.archive.org/web/20230829201210/https://abcnews.go.com/Health/cdc-changing-covid-19-surveillance-public-health-emergency/story?id=99088244 ↩︎
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP). (2023, June 28). Enroll in v-safe after vaccination health checker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://archive.today/2023.08.29-123151/https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/ensuringsafety/monitoring/v-safe/index.html ↩︎
Kacsmaryk, M. J. (2024, January 5). Freedom Coalition of Doctors for Choice v. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention et al - Memorandum Order and Opinion. Informed Consent Action Network; United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division. https://web.archive.org/web/20240112080644/https://icandecide.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/040-Memorandum-Order-and-Opinion-2024-01-08.pdf ↩︎