Final answer:
The CDC houses the National Center for Health Statistics, which is responsible for maintaining official vital statistics. While the CDC handles broader public health issues, it is accurate to associate it with vital statistics through its NCHS division.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to which federal agency is responsible for maintaining official vital statistics in the United States. The correct agency that handles this responsibility is the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which is a division within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the CDC is widely known for its role in preventing and controlling infectious diseases and promoting public health, the specific tasks of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating vital statistics like births, deaths, marriage, and divorce data are managed by the NCHS. Thus, the initial statement is partly true, as the CDC is the broader agency that houses the NCHS.
The CDC indeed plays a crucial role in many areas of public health. It operates a number of surveillance systems to monitor the nation's health, such as the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS), which contributes to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). The CDC also espouses the central dogma of molecular biology, which explains how genetic information flows from DNA to RNA to protein, relevant in understanding many aspects of disease and health.