Now, some officials said, morale is low at the CDC, as a feeling of helplessness pervades the staff. That raises questions about Walensky’s ability to usher the agency — and Americans — through the Omicron wave into a year that could bring new rounds of vaccinations and more infectious variants.

“There’s no end in sight,” a second CDC official told POLITICO. “We’re all tired.”…

Current and former officials of the CDC said employees on the response team — officials and scientists from several CDC offices — have for months told their superiors that they are exhausted and need time off the team. Some staff members have worked on the team since the pandemic began. While others have rotated on and off the response team in three- and six-month intervals, they work as many as 200 fourteen-hour days a year, including weekends…

“A lot of people don’t want to come and work on the team because they know how much work it is,” the CDC official said.

Sauber-Schatz said some of the individuals who have not worked on the response team picked up extra work that those serving on the response can’t get to. “That’s part of the way that we’ve made this sustainable,” she said.