This is my experience as well. I'm on three different conference calls per week with CDC folks, and I'm only peripherally involved.

I'm curious as to what exactly "some time" means for the 12 people that you know. Is it greater than 4 weeks?

12 people may not be a lot, but his anecdote of 12 people seems stronger than what you've offered up so far. What actual evidence is there that the CDC has dragged their feet on this?

January 24th is quite late to the game relative to what we've known publicly for quite some time.

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/archives.html

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/archives.html

Testing delays and scheduling issues for testing before the CDC distributed kits were also critical missteps.

I have texted the seven people of those 12 who I'm on "texting terms" with. Three of them began shifting some of their time in mid-November, two in mid-December, one in January, one no response. Four of the seven have traveled to US ports beginning in January to begin testing and monitoring efforts.

Anothet example of CDC dragging its feet during the same time period.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/fayko1/my_covid19_stor...

The CDC has finally issued a level 1 travel advisory for Hong Kong as of February 21st.

That's what I call "dragging feet."