By Zeynep Tufekci

Dr. Tufekci is a contributing Opinion writer who has extensively examined the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Be first, be right, be credible,” are among the most important principles for health authorities to follow in a crisis, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shared in a pamphlet on crisis communication in 2018.

To meet those goals, the report advises, avoid sending mixed messages from multiple experts, releasing information too late, taking paternalistic attitudes, failing to counter rumors and myths in real time and engaging in public power struggles and causing confusion.

Last week, as agency officials announced new mask guidelines and set the nation on edge, I had to wonder if they had swapped their “do list” and their “avoid list.”

The C.D.C. faces three major problems.

The first is reality: a sustained campaign of misinformation against vaccines and other public health measures, originating mostly with right-wing commentators and politicians, and a new media environment that has upended traditional information flows.

Second, the C.D.C. is still mired in the fog of pandemic, with too little data, collected too slowly, leaving it chasing epidemic waves and trying to make sense of information from other countries. Epidemics spread exponentially, so delayed responses make problems much worse. If the response to a crisis comes after many people are already aware of it brewing, it leaves them confused and fearful if they look to the C.D.C. for guidance, and vulnerable to misinformation if they do not.

Third, the agency is simply not doing a good job at what the pamphlet advises: being first, right and credible, and avoiding mixed messaging, delays and confusion.

It’s hard not to have sympathy for its predicament. The previous administration undermined the C.D.C., and anti-vaxxers’ deliberate misinformation assault has not made the agency’s job any easier. The digital public sphere operates fast and furious, and that’s difficult for traditional institutions to keep up with or to counter.

All this makes it even more important that the C.D.C. properly handle what’s under its control.

The response to the Delta variant has been too slow. Data from other countries made it clear months ago that it posed a great threat. Unfortunately, the United States already doesn’t collect the kind of systematic data needed on many important indicators. Making things worse, in early May, the C.D.C. stopped tracking breakthrough infections among the vaccinated unless they were hospitalized or worse, even though the reason for continued surveillance is to see and understand changes in an outbreak as early as possible.

June passed with little change in the government’s response, despite multiple technical papers from Public Health England showing that the Delta variant was much more transmissible and possibly more severe, and that it was able to cause more breakthrough infections among the vaccinated. Detailed contact tracing from Singapore also showed that some of the vaccinated were transmitting.

It was clear something had changed. Severe outbreaks were occurring wherever Delta swept through, leaving millions dead in countries with few vaccinated people, and increasing caseloads and hospitalizations even in countries with substantial vaccination levels.

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