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The new leadership team charged with the development and implementation of a plan to establish the center, includes:

• Dr. Marc Lipsitch, who will serve as Director for Science
• Dr. Dylan George, who will serve as Director for Operations
• Dr. Caitlin Rivers, who will serve as Associate Director
• Dr. Rebecca Kahn, who will serve as Senior Scientist

“I am thrilled to be joining an exceptional team at CDC to build new capabilities for the fight against pandemics,” Dr. George exclaimed in the news release.
“Pandemics threaten our families and communities at speed and scale – our response needs to move at speed and scale, too.”
Dr. George continued:
“The Center will provide critical information to communities so we can respond efficiently and effectively. The U.S. desperately needs this capability, and I am grateful for the opportunity to help build it.”
The new center will meet a longstanding need for a national focal point to analyze data and forecast the trajectory of pandemics with the express goal of informing and improving decisions with the best available evidence, added Dr. Lipsitch.
“I am thrilled to be working with a great team at CDC to set it up, and excited to integrate the best and most innovative ideas from academia, the private sector, and government to make this a reality that will truly improve our response to future pandemics, and indeed to other infectious diseases,” Dr. Lipsitch remarked.
Officials concluded that, in establishing the center, the CDC “is addressing a critical need to improve the U.S. government’s ability to forecast and model emerging health threats, while building on existing modeling activities, expanding collaboration through interoperability, accessibility and increased emphasis on policy-maker decision support and communication to the public.”