Roundup: U.S. CDC admits falling short in response to COVID-19

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- The chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday acknowledged that the agency had failed to respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic, and announced plans for extensive changes.

"To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in a video distributed to the agency's roughly 11,000 employees.