Surveying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Scientist Voices under President Biden

The document reports on a survey of 378 CDC scientists conducted by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. While a majority of respondents agreed that the agency adhered to its scientific integrity policy, the findings highlight concerns regarding the omission of politically contentious words from scientific work and the extent to which COVID-19 science consistently informed policy decisions. The report advocates for the passage of the Scientific Integrity Act and strengthened agency policies to protect science from political, ideological, and financial interests.

• A majority of surveyed CDC scientists believe the agency followed its scientific integrity policy, with 247 out of 317 respondents in agreement.
• The CDC had a higher number of scientists reporting requests to remove politically contentious words from their work than any other agency surveyed, with 128 out of 356 scientists reporting this issue.
• There is a perception among some staff that COVID-19 scientific work did not always guide policy, with 86 out of 345 scientists stating that the agency's work on the pandemic has not consistently informed policy decisions.
• A higher proportion of CDC scientists disagreed that senior leaders with conflicts of interest inappropriately influenced decisions compared to the Obama or Trump administrations, with 172 out of 324 scientists disagreeing.

APA

Carter, J., & Desikan, A. (2023). Surveying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Scientist Voices under President Biden. Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/fed%20sci%20survey%202023_CDC_final.pdf

Chicago

Carter, Jacob, and Anita Desikan. Surveying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Scientist Voices under President Biden. Union of Concerned Scientists, 2023. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/fed%20sci%20survey%202023_CDC_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Carter |first1=Jacob |last2=Desikan |first2=Anita |title=Surveying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Scientist Voices under President Biden |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists |date=February 2023 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/fed%20sci%20survey%202023_CDC_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carter2023surveying, author = {Carter, Jacob and Desikan, Anita}, title = {{Surveying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Scientist Voices under President Biden}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2023}, month = feb, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/2023-02/fed%20sci%20survey%202023_CDC_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }