How did the CDC fail the American people?  The CDC failed in many ways. Krystal and Saagar of Breaking Points review some of the main ways the CDC failed us and it is downright embarrassing. They applaud the CDC's willingness to finally decide to evaluate its many failures, but these failures are numerous and embarrassing.

To the extent that Americans (like me) have substantially lost trust in the CDC (no and in the future), the CDC has caused this damage. As Krystal Ball mentions, it was not the CDC's job to psychoanalyze Americans and try to manage our emotions. We wanted and needed straight facts, and that is where the CDC failed abysmally. They should have assumed that, by and large, Americans "can handle the unvarnished facts." Some of the main failures of the CDC:

A) Does the infection spread by surface contamination (no) or only airborne viral particles (yes). Not until May 2021 did the CDC acknowledge the basic fact that the virus was spread by airborne transmission. This was mid-vaccination.

B) whether Americans should buy or use masks. In Feb 2020, Surgeon General told the public to stop buying masks because they were allegedly not effective for the general public.  Even though health care workers needed masks.  This was absurd, oxymoronic and insane messaging that caused Americans to lose trust in the CDC.  The CDC later failed to acknowledge that some kinds of masks are essentially useless.

C) Testing.  The U.S. government refused to allow Americans to use effective and available testing because there bureaucracy of the CDC did not approve them.  We didn't have tests available until more than a year after tests were available in South Korea and other countries.  Americans were forced to "fly blind," according to Krystal.

There are many many other examples. For instance, whether lockdowns are effective.  Whether vaccination protects people from future infection and/or protects people from spreading the infection. Further, there CDC covered up the colossal risk factor of obesity. Excellent discussion.