[NVIC] CDC Officials Get Bonsues, Others Leave

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National Vaccine Information Center Newsletter

e-NEWS

September 21, 2006

Exodus, morale shake CDC

Inner Circle Taking More of C.D.C. Bonuses

" In 2005, the records show that officials in Dr. Gerberding's office

received 60 premium bonuses totaling $515,075, or about 4 percent of all

bonuses granted within the centers. Because bonus money is limited — about

1.5 percent of the total personnel budget, Mr. Skinner said — the growing

share of premium bonuses for Dr. Gerberding's closest advisers has meant

less money is available for some scientists and other workers. " - Gardiner

, New York Times

" The most visible sign of potential trouble at CDC is the loss of more

than a dozen high-profile leaders and scientists since 2004. By the end of

this year, all but two of the directors of CDC's eight primary scientific

centers will have left the Atlanta-based federal agency. The wave of

departures --- which numerous CDC leaders call unprecedented --- also

includes the agency's top vaccine expert and world experts in several

diseases. Just last week CDC's pandemic flu coordinator said he's leaving.....

" They don't trust and Bill, " said Dr. Dixie Snider, who retired this

summer after working in CDC's Office of the Director for 13 years,

including since 2004 as Gerberding's chief science officer. " It's a reality

that the leadership is aware of. I think everybody is just befuddled about

how do you fix that. " Trust issues range from a general lack of confidence

that CDC's leadership will " do the right thing " when faced with political

pressure from Washington; to questions of whether the reorganization was

motivated more by a desire for control and power than designed to fix

anything that was broken; to a belief that official staff communications

are designed more to burnish a public relations image than give employees

the unvarnished truth, according to interviews. " Alison Young, - Atlanta

Journal Constitution

Barbara Loe Fisher Commentary:

CDC Director Gerberding, M.D. is being slammed in the media and by

current CDC employees and former CDC directors for daring to undertake a

complete administrative reorganization of the agency. The loudest howls are

coming from current and former CDC employees responsible for the nation's

mass vaccination program, which has been the target of public criticism by

parents of vaccine injured children who blame the actions of CDC officials

for the nation's autism epidemic. Whether Gerbeding's attempts to reform

the CDC eventually results in scientifically defensible and humane vaccine

policies remains to be seen. For the present, she is under personal attack

for financially rewarding her closest advisors while hurting the feelings

of the vaccinologists and infectious disease specialists working for her.

Exodus, morale shake CDC

julie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 09/10/06

By ALISON YOUNG

An exodus of key leaders and scientists from the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention has raised " great concern " among five of the six

former directors who led the agency over the past 40 years.

Their concerns, expressed in a rare joint letter to current CDC Director

Dr. Gerberding, come amid growing staff complaints about whether her

strategic shifts in the agency's focus are putting public health at risk,

according to interviews with current and former CDC officials and documents

obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Critics say the agency is changing to a top- down management style that

stifles science and that new layers of bureaucracy are being created,

making agency operations more cumbersome.

The most visible sign of potential trouble at CDC is the loss of more than

a dozen high-profile leaders and scientists since 2004. By the end of this

year, all but two of the directors of CDC's eight primary scientific

centers will have left the Atlanta-based federal agency. The wave of

departures --- which numerous CDC leaders call unprecedented --- also

includes the agency's top vaccine expert and world experts in several

diseases. Just last week CDC's pandemic flu coordinator said he's leaving.

As the nation's 9-1-1 for public health, CDC is responsible for preventing

and tackling outbreaks, bioterrorism and pandemics, along with the more

routine, deadly threats of seasonal flu, HIV, rabies, injuries and obesity.

The urgency of these missions has current and former CDC scientists deeply

concerned that the agency's new strategy of looking at health issues

broadly and reorganizing its divisions puts it on a course to potential

disaster, causing it to lose its footing, like FEMA did before it faced

Hurricane Katrina.

Gerberding and top officials at the Department of Health and Human

Services, CDC's parent agency, credit the strategic changes with putting

the agency in its best position ever to respond to the threats of a modern

world. And they point to a host of accomplishments as evidence of the

agency's continued prowess --- from development of a faster test for

botulism to groundbreaking genetic research on bird flu to outbreak

responses.

" I think we have been incredibly high-performing throughout this period of

time, " Gerberding said in an interview.

Still, Gerberding said she will be hiring a first- ever employee ombudsman

for the CDC. It's an attempt to address a crescendo of employee concerns,

which in recent months have included criticism of the reorganization's

merits, a whistle- blower alleging CDC mismanagement of bioterrorism funds,

and lunchtime picketing by minority employees claiming discrimination, CDC

officials said.

Gerberding said some low morale is to be expected as the agency enters its

third year of her sweeping effort to broaden CDC's approach to health

issues, changing its organizational chart from deep silos of expertise on

individual diseases to a wider structure meant to encourage more

collaboration on broader health issues.

It's a process that has plunged much of the agency's leadership into

time-consuming meetings and has generated significant angst as

long-standing divisions have been shuffled or eliminated. For instance,

CDC's old National Center for Infectious Diseases has had its components

broken apart and spread across four newly created " national centers. " While

they all remain under one newly created " coordinating center, " disease

experts are scattered in a way that some fear will make communication and

innovation more difficult.

Assistant Secretary for Health Agwunobi said change is always

difficult and that Gerberding's transformation of the agency is vital to

the nation's future.

" CDC is delivering on its mission, some would say better than it ever has

done, " said Agwunobi, whose department oversees CDC. " We have great

confidence in Gerberding. "

Others are less confident in the direction CDC is headed.

" You're seeing a gradual erosion into the scientific base, and that's very

worrisome, " said Dr. Sencer, one of five former CDC directors who

sent the joint letter of concern to Gerberding in December, then met with

her this spring.

Statements like this from some of the nation's top scientists are what has

caused the Senate Finance Committee to become " deeply concerned, " said U.S.

Sen. Grassley, its chairman. The committee, prompted by a CDC

whistleblower, is probing CDC's oversight of a $3.8 billion bioterrorism

grant program. It's also examining reports that turmoil in the agency is

putting its scientific mission at risk.

" The citizens of the United States fully expect that in the event of

natural disasters, attacks by bioterrorists, and outbreaks of

life-threatening diseases, the agencies of their federal government will

quickly and effectively respond to those situations, " said Grassley (R-Iowa).

The Journal-Constitution has found it difficult to quantify whether the

agency's ability to respond in a crisis has been significantly harmed.

Grassley's investigators have experienced similar difficulty.

But Grassley said: " The beliefs expressed by those experts cannot be safely

ignored or minimized. "

Examining the exodus

The CDC is one of the most trusted agencies of the federal government, one

that is unique in its mission, its location outside the nation's capital,

and its work force of world-class experts and public health professionals

driven by a noble and critical purpose. Locally, CDC and its 9,000

employees and 5,000 contractors are part of the fabric of Atlanta ---

people proud and protective of their agency.

To Gerberding and her top management team, the current spate of departures

and ongoing morale issues are the result of a confluence of many factors.

They include budget cuts imposed by Washington, a shift in funding away

from traditional diseases toward the more high-profile threats of terrorism

and pandemics, and an aging federal work force.

Add to all that the stress of the agency reorganization.

" I don't know any organization that's gone through significant change where

morale hasn't been an issue, " Gerberding said. " But I don't like the fact

that it is an issue here. And I can assure you that all of us are taking

the situation very seriously and listening and trying to understand the

things that we can fix and try to improve our ability to cope with the

things that we can't fix. "

The chorus of strongly voiced concerns coming from inside the agency is

what alarmed five former CDC directors and spurred them to send the joint

letter to Gerberding on Dec. 22.

" We have all gone through periods of change and recognize the difficulties

attendant to change. However, we are concerned about the previous and

impending losses of highly qualified and motivated staff, " wrote former CDC

directors Dr. Foege, Dr. Mason, Dr. Satcher, Dr.

Koplan and Sencer.

Their leadership of the agency spans Republican and Democratic

administrations dating back to 1966.

" We are concerned that so many of the staff have come to us to express

their concerns about the low morale in the agency. We are concerned about

the inability of many of the partners to understand the direction in which

CDC is headed, " they said in the letter.

" I think all of us were receiving virtually constant messages from staff

expressing concerns about morale and their ability to do their work --- and

all of it unsolicited, " Koplan said in a recent interview. He preceded

Gerberding as CDC director and now is vice president for academic health

affairs at Emory University's Woodruff Health Sciences Center.

The CDC staff members who are raising concerns, Koplan said, are not

complainers.

" In my 34 years of affiliation with the CDC, I've never seen this level of

concern, " Koplan said. " The rate and number of turnover has been

exceptional. And it's not just senior leadership, which would be huge in

and of itself. "

Retirements among one category of scientists last year were up 77 percent

over previous years, CDC employment data show.

Foege, Mason and Satcher did not grant interviews. Dr. Roper, who

was CDC director during the administration of President Bush's father, was

the lone former director who was not a part of the letter. Roper declined

to comment about the letter.

Gerberding said she welcomed the former directors' input. " They brought the

ombudsman idea forward. It was something we had already considered, but not

quite in the way they had framed it. "

Two contractors will initially act as ombudsmen as they research what the

permanent job will entail.

Gerberding said she remains in contact with the former CDC directors. " I

think they're like I would be when I'm no longer the director: Concerned,

but respectful of the fact that they're not seeing the whole picture either. "

Scientists break silence

Until now, many of the agency's current and former scientists have refused

to talk publicly about what they see as the agency's problems. Concern has

reached critical mass in recent months, prompting even some who are still

employed by the agency to fear that staying silent will do more harm to CDC

than airing the agency's laundry in public.

They say changes at the agency are putting CDC's performance at risk.

" The sense I get is a lot of the decision-making and a lot of the resources

are getting moved away from the scientific underpinnings of the agency, "

said Dr. Ostroff, who was deputy director of CDC's National Center

for Infectious Diseases until he left the agency last year. Ostroff was a

leader of CDC's much praised responses to outbreaks of SARS and monkeypox.

" I think there really is the potential for lots of people to take their eye

off the ball because they're so heavily engaged in so many of these other

things going on in the agency: the reorganization and goals management, "

Ostroff said.

In a memo to Gerberding last fall, the agency's Division Directors Council

warned that her plans to adopt 21 new agency goals simultaneously involved

a " risky " diversion of staff time and " will produce even greater confusion

and threaten our ability to meet CDC's ongoing commitments. "

Dr. Harold Margolis, one of several high-profile scientists who has left

CDC since 2004, cited the all- consuming reorganization and a shift away

from letting science drive programs as some of the reasons for his departure.

CDC's historic success, he said, has been driven by good science. " It was

generated from a lot of smart people working together from the bottom. The

point was it was not dictated from the top, " said Margolis, who was chief

of CDC's viral hepatitis division for 17 years.

Dr. Cochi, a senior adviser in CDC's Global Immunization Division,

said the agency's staff is proud of its history of successfully tackling

public health problems.

" The capacity of CDC to do that has been seriously eroded in a very short

period of time, " Cochi said. " The American people need to be concerned. "

Cochi, like others, said scientists are less empowered to make decisions,

are discouraged from offering alternative approaches to solving problems,

and face increased layers of bureaucracy that make it more difficult to do

their jobs.

Cochi, who has been at CDC for 25 years, is featured in a CDC film about

polio eradication played prominently in the agency's new visitors center.

Cochi received a disciplinary letter last fall for sending an e-mail to

staff --- while he was acting director of CDC's National Immunization

Program --- that was critical of the reorganization's potential impact.

Cochi was not chosen to be a permanent director.

" I believe there is a danger, " he wrote, that the National Immunization

Program " may become less focused, and have more bureaucratic obstacles

imposed on it. I am particularly concerned about budget cuts and

redirections of immunization program dollars. "

In a Nov. 30 disciplinary letter, Dr. Cohen, director of CDC's

newly created Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, told Cochi:

" These statements are misleading, inaccurate, or are in contrast to the

intent of the proposed reorganization. "

Cohen's letter said Cochi should be well aware that the intent of the

reorganization is to strengthen the agency. " It is important to note that

as a part of the senior management team, you are obligated to support the

agency's executive leadership decisions. "

Declining morale, trust

Various personnel surveys of CDC staff, analyzed by the

Journal-Constitution, have documented increasing employee concerns about

the agency's direction, trust in its leaders and the adequacy of agency

resources.

Yet even with the declining morale indicators, about two-thirds of CDC

employees say they are satisfied with their individual jobs and would

recommend the agency as a good place to work.

Dr. Fenton, one of the new slate of center directors promoted in the

wake of the departures, said many employees embrace Gerberding's vision for

the new CDC.

" What you have is a real mixture of opinions depending on who you speak to

and where they are in their career trajectory, " said Fenton, who joined CDC

in January 2005. Last November, he was promoted to director of CDC's

national center for HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. " I

can see why we need to change, " he said, but " that rationale for change may

not have been articulated clearly enough or widely enough or repeatedly

enough to sink in. "

Despite numerous task forces and listening sessions that Gerberding said

she held to ensure the reorganization has been inclusive, there is

skepticism. Some believe that the efforts were largely for show.

And there is a specific distrust of Gerberding herself and the agency's

chief operations officer, Bill Gimson, according to interviews with their

supporters and detractors. That's coupled with what some say is a climate

of fear that discourages honest communication, and an effort to " spin " the

official information disseminated to employees.

" They don't trust and Bill, " said Dr. Dixie Snider, who retired this

summer after working in CDC's Office of the Director for 13 years,

including since 2004 as Gerberding's chief science officer. " It's a reality

that the leadership is aware of. I think everybody is just befuddled about

how do you fix that. "

Trust issues range from a general lack of confidence that CDC's leadership

will " do the right thing " when faced with political pressure from

Washington; to questions of whether the reorganization was motivated more

by a desire for control and power than designed to fix anything that was

broken; to a belief that official staff communications are designed more to

burnish a public relations image than give employees the unvarnished truth,

according to interviews.

Snider, who joined CDC in 1973, thinks the perception is unfair. He said

Gerberding has been the most open and collaborative director he's worked

with.

Gerberding is the first female CDC director, and is a relative newcomer to

the agency, joining in 1998. In July 2002, she was tapped to head the

agency following her high-profile role in leading CDC's response to the

2001 anthrax attacks. It was anthrax, Gerberding says, that showed her how

CDC needed to be more nimble in working across its divisions.

The lack of trust in CDC's top leadership is publicly reflected in dozens

of postings on an independent CDC employee blog that began publishing on

the Internet in January, as well as in a governmentwide poll of federal

employees. Between 2002 and 2004, CDC employees who said the agency's

leaders maintained high standards of honesty and integrity dropped from 51

percent to 45 percent. " There is a disconnect between what is said is

happening and what we see or feel is happening, " said Bob Keegan, creator

of the blog www.cdcchatter.net, which he said gets about 30,000 hits a day.

Keegan, deputy director of the CDC's Global Immunization Division, is a

recipient of the agency's Medal of Excellence, a top employee award.

Alonso, a health communication specialist in CDC's National Center

for Health Marketing, is a reader of the blog, which he said " furnishes a

sobering and welcome counterweight " to official CDC information.

" Suffice it to say that when respected employees of any organization decide

to take to the streets, or design external blogs to voice frustrations and

outrage, the commonly accepted avenues of internal communication have

either lost their credibility, or broken down completely, " said Alonso, a

23-year CDC employee.

Gerberding declined to be interviewed about the trust issues being raised

by her staff.

Proof of harm?

A lack of trust, an exodus of leaders and a major reorganization is a

potentially dangerous mix, said Kettl, director of the Fels

Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.

" Can you spell FEMA? It's the same kind of issue that they faced, " he said.

" If there is a high level of conflict and tension, it makes it hard for

people who need to, to work together --- and work well --- because they

need trust, " Kettl said.

Kettl published an article in December lauding Gerberding's efforts during

the anthrax crisis and how she's using those lessons to transform CDC. But

he said he didn't examine whether the changes have helped or hurt the

agency. " The only proof of this is how an organization responds in a

crisis, " he said.

Gerberding and others in the agency's senior leadership point to CDC's

responses to the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome

(SARS), the monkeypox outbreak, the agency's handling of flu vaccine

shortages in 2004 and response to Hurricane Katrina as proof the agency

hasn't suffered.

But these examples don't appear to provide that proof, critics say. SARS

and monkeypox happened in 2003 --- as the reorganization was beginning and

before the departure last year of two key leaders who ran those responses.

Dr. and Ostroff, the director and deputy director of CDC's

National Center for Infectious Diseases left the agency last year.

CDC has received mixed reviews on its performance leading up to and after

the vaccine shortage, according to reports by the Government Accountability

Office and the Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit watchdog group. And

Hurricane Katrina, while a huge rescue and humanitarian response that

tested FEMA, was not a public health crisis for CDC.

" We really haven't had an infectious disease emergency since Jim and I have

gone, " Ostroff said. " I don't think the systems have been recently tested. "

To contact reporter Alison Young, e-mail ayoung@... or call 404-526-7372.

To contact reporter Alison Young, e-mail ayoung@... or call 404-526-7372.

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Inner Circle Taking More of C.D.C. Bonuses

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New York Times

September 17, 2006

By GARDINER HARRIS

Top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received

premium bonuses in recent years at the expense of scientists and others who

perform much of the agency's scientific work, agency records show.

Those inside the office of the centers' director, Dr. L. Gerberding,

have benefited the most, the records show.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, The New York Times requested records

of all cash awards of $2,500 or greater granted to current and former

C.D.C. employees from 2000 to mid-2006. The most recent awards are dated

July 21.

Dr. Gerberding, whose leadership of the agency is the subject of an inquiry

by the Senate Finance Committee, was not immediately available for comment,

said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the centers.

From 2002 through mid-2006, H. Gimson III, the agency's chief

operating officer, received bonuses totaling $147,863, which included seven

cash awards of more than $2,500. Mr. Gimson's bonuses were about twice the

amount granted to any other C.D.C. employee, the agency's records show.

Mr. Skinner said Mr. Gimson was not immediately available for comment.

Mr. Gimson's deputy, Barbara W. , received six premium bonuses of

$2,500 or more from 2002 through mid-2006 for a total of $84,894, agency

records show.

Mr. Skinner said Ms. was also not available for comment.

Mr. Gimson and Ms. are part of the federal government's Senior

Executive Service, a cadre of top civil servants whose salaries are

generally among the highest in government. The salaries of Mr. Gimson and

Ms. were not included in the records requested by The Times.

The increase in bonuses to these officials was part of a decision by the

Bush administration to make transformation of the management of the centers

a top priority, said Glen Nowak, chief of media relations at the centers.

" If we want to retain people, we need to recognize them, " Mr. Nowak said

Friday in an interview. " We are operating in a highly competitive

environment. "

Before Dr. Gerberding's appointment, members of the C.D.C. director's inner

circle rarely received premium bonuses of $2,500 or more. After her

arrival, in July 2002, such cash awards increased, the records obtained by

The Times show.

In 2000, officials in the office of the director, Dr. P. Koplan,

received bonuses totaling $30,000, which included eight premium bonuses of

$2,500 or more. The bonuses represented 0.4 percent of all bonuses granted

within the centers that year.

In 2005, the records show that officials in Dr. Gerberding's office

received 60 premium bonuses totaling $515,075, or about 4 percent of all

bonuses granted within the centers.

Because bonus money is limited — about 1.5 percent of the total personnel

budget, Mr. Skinner said — the growing share of premium bonuses for Dr.

Gerberding's closest advisers has meant less money is available for some

scientists and other workers.

In an e-mail message on Friday afternoon, Dr. Gerberding informed workers

at the centers that information about the agency's bonus program might soon

be made public.

" It is important to remember one thing, though: that those of you who have

received a monetary award, or will in the future, received it for your

superior performance and special acts, which merit these awards, " Dr.

Gerberding wrote.

The agency's Executive Leadership Board recently voted to create a

committee to review the cash awards process and address " any shortcomings, "

she wrote.

In addition to those within Dr. Gerberding's inner circle, the increase in

large cash awards within the centers has mostly benefited employees in the

agency's financial, computer and human resources departments — not its

scientists.

" You have the administration signaling that these are the areas that they

want to see significant improvements on, and they want that to happen as

quickly as possible, " Mr. Nowak said.

The administration also made security a priority, Mr. Nowak said. He said

that helped to explain $41,485 in premium bonuses given since 2002 to

T. Porter, the agency's head of security.

" I'm sure Bill Porter's peers in the corporate world are being paid at a

higher level, " Mr. Nowak said.

Members of the Public Health Service are not eligible to receive cash

awards, Mr. Nowak said. That is part of the reason so few scientists appear

among the top recipients of premium bonuses, he said.

Soon after arriving at the centers, Dr. Gerberding began a comprehensive

reorganization of the agency. In its wake, many of the agency's senior

scientists and leaders either left or have announced that they are planning

to leave.

The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal- Constitution have reported on

the turmoil at the centers in articles quoting disgruntled former senior

scientists who said the changes had undermined the agency.

Five of the six former directors who led the agency in the past 40 years

recently wrote a letter to Dr. Gerberding expressing concerns over the

exodus of crucial administrative and scientific leaders and scientists, The

Journal-Constitution reported.

Senator E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Finance

Committee, has announced that the committee is trying to determine whether

upheaval at the agency has jeopardized its scientific mission.

In another e-mail message, on Sept. 11, Dr. Gerberding noted the departures

of top agency leaders and acknowledged that change was difficult.

" I respect those who don't believe these changes are needed, and I respect

even more all those who are actively and constructively engaged in helping

us find the best way forward, " Dr. Gerberding wrote.

Among the other recipients of large cash awards since 2002 were D.

Seligman, the agency's chief information officer, who received $62,455 in

premium bonuses; C. Tibbs, director of the agency's financial

management office, who received $52,880; and S. Lane, a senior

adviser to the Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases, who received

$50,565.

None could immediately be reached for comment.

Report: Most CDC Bonuses Go to Managers

The Washington Post

Associated Press

September 16, 2006

ATLANTA -- The employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

who get bonuses most frequently are not scientists, but instead are

accountants, budget analysts, computer experts and other administrative

managers, according to a published report Sunday.

The data appear to reinforce the findings of an internal CDC survey last

year that found one of the top concerns among the agency's employees was a

" loss of public health focus/mission in exchange for inappropriate business

focus. "

The 72 CDC employees who received five or more awards of at least $2,500

from 2000 through July 21 work primarily in non-science jobs, according an

analysis by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of agency data obtained under

the Freedom of Information Act.

Some of those employees got $30,000, $50,000 and, in one case, more than

$140,000 in cumulative bonuses during the period, the paper reported.

The CDC has about 9,000 employees, and 4,200 of them are considered

scientific staff.

CDC officials said the agency is examining its system of awarding employees.

" We want to make sure that the system we have in place is equitable and

that it rewards everyone, if in fact they are eligible for the award and if

in fact they're deserving of it, " spokesman Tom Skinner said.

In an e-mail to CDC employees Friday, in anticipation of the

Journal-Constitution's report, director Gerberding stressed that the

agency was reviewing the program, Skinner said.

" You all work hard every day and often accomplish seemingly impossible

feats within incredible time constraints, " she wrote. " Without question,

people at CDC who do exceptional work should be recognized with awards,

including monetary awards. "

Gerberding was not available to comment Saturday, Skinner said.

Skinner and other CDC officials said several factors may explain the

frequent large awards skewed in favor of financial staff and administrative

managers instead of core scientific staff.

One could be that not all front-line managers may be aware of or regularly

use the awards. Another is that all federal agencies are being pushed to

improve budget systems, technology and the like. There hasn't been such a

push on the scientific side, said Glen Nowak, another CDC spokesman.

Also, about 800 of the CDC's 4,200 scientific employees are members of the

U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a uniformed service that

operates under a different personnel system and is not eligible for the

awards, CDC officials said. And about 600 distinguished scientists are in

another classification that did not become eligible for annual performance

awards until last fall, they said.

Cash awards given to CDC and other federal employees fall under two general

categories: special act cash awards, which reward for a specific

accomplishment or activity; and annual performance bonuses, tied to a

percentage of the person's salary.

Since 2000, the CDC distributed about 2,500 special act and performance

awards worth at least $2,500 to about 1,450 employees, the

Journal-Constitution reported. About 560 received two or more of these

awards, and 72 received five or more.

Three employees _ a financial systems branch chief, a deputy director of

budget and management, and another budget official _ received 10 awards

each. Their cumulative awards totaled $35,000, $34,326 and $32,000

respectively.

Five employees _ working in facilities operations, budget, accounting and

technical information _ received nine awards each. Their cumulative totals

ranged from $25,326 to $50,565.

CDC officials did not release copies of the award nominations or

justification forms for the most frequent recipients.

About CDC: CDC's Award and Recognition Program

Department of Health and Human Services

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Recently CDC's award and recognition program has received coverage in the

media. Stories have been written based on a Freedom of Information Act

request from the media representative who asked for the names of all CDC

full-time employees (including SES) who received cash awards of $2,500 or

above between 2000 and July 2006. These stories have yielded press coverage

and many questions.

“Equity should be one of the key components of our recognition programs. As

such, we are committed to ongoing review and improvement of the CDC awards

program. The CDC Executive Leadership Board recently voted to create a new

standing committee to analyze the current criteria for performance awards

and to make recommendations to the CDC director and HHS about strengthening

the awards process and addressing any shortcomings.” L. Gerberding,

MD, MPH, in a note to employees Friday, September 15, 2006.

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questions and answers about the CDC rewards program.

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NVIC is funded through the financial support of its members and does not

receive any government subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-

founder.

Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed

consent rights at

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9dioqybab.0.jcsy6wbab.oblmlwbab.8914 & ts=S0208 & p=htt

p%3A%2F%2Fwww.nvic.org%2F>www.nvic.org

NVIC

National Vaccine Information Center

email: <mailto:news@...>news@...

phone: 703-938-dpt3

web:

<http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=9dioqybab.0.hmy4rwbab.oblmlwbab.8914 & ts=S0208 & p=htt

p%3A%2F%2Fwww.nvic.org>http://www.nvic.org

National Vaccine Information Center | 204 Mill St. | Suite B1 | Vienna | VA

| 22180

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm