First, the chief of the CDC is absolutely a political appointment of the current administration.
I don't have any opinion on the Hurricane Dorian thing.
But as to the director of CDC being a political appointment: That's
normally the case. The only exception in recent years is careerist Anne Schuchat, who twice had to be a transitional figure, first to Brenda Fitzgerald, and then after the scandal broke (her investment portfolio had included a tobacco company in it, which looks bad for CDC), she resigned and Schuchat had to come back in until Bob Redfield. Prior to that, Gerberding was the other long-time CDC fixture who became Director, but was not reappointed and was replaced with, yes, a political appointment.
But none of that is terribly relevant to the current crisis, because you're talking about the Director, when you should be talking about deputy-director-level things. What the director would be doing, in this case, is ensuring that EIS has everything it needs and that PHS has a competent deputy who's doing their job with the Infectious Diseases team. Every administration brings in someone who's a decent
organizational administrator, who has enough public-health or virology experience to not look like a John Sculley, and the reason they change when the administrations change is because each administration is trying avoid being sandbagged by a political foe. That's SOP at CDC, just like it is at IRS, HHS, State, and everywhere else.
)
(axe 2 is out of reach now)
