A House select subcommittee report says the Trump administration pressured the CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump takes questions at the White House in Washington, D.C., on February 26, 2020. Behind him are (L-R) Robert R. Redfield, former director of the Centers.for Disease Control and Prevention, former Vice President Mike Pence, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the CDC, former Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar. File photo by Pat Benic/UPI |
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Oct. 17 (UPI) -- The Trump administration allegedly "bullied" top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2020 to present a more optimistic view of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Monday by a congressional panel.
The House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis released a 91-page report, that includes interviews, emails and text messages from former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield and former top deputy Anne Schuchat, among others, exposing the Trump administration's efforts to "control the CDC and politicize public health."
The report, which is the third in a series by the select committee, says the Trump White House pressured CDC officials to change scientific reports and rewrite their publications, while using the public health crisis to restrict immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"This prioritization of politics, contempt for science and refusal to follow the advice of public health experts harmed the nation's ability to respond effectively to the coronavirus crisis and put Americans at risk," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., who chairs the panel, said in a statement. Clyburn's panel has spent the past two years investigating the Trump administration's response to the pandemic.
The report cites several officials at the CDC who say they were worried they would be fired if they failed to back off from their dire assessment of the pandemic, as well as plans to require masks on public transportation during the summer of 2020.
"If we constantly are finger-pointing and blaming somebody else for things, we lose the fact that the real enemy here was the virus," Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global migration and quarantine, said in a May 2022 interview. Cetron said he also opposed the federal order, Title 42, which barred people from entering the United States at its borders with Canada and Mexico, saying it lacked scientific basis.
The report says the Trump administration installed allies who "bullied and retaliated against CDC scientists in an attempt to maintain control over coronavirus communications," pointing specifically to former President Donald Trump's appointment of Michael Caputo as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at Health and Human Services.
"Some people at the CDC were intimidated...some of the behavior was just inexplicable. It was a little frustrating, though, because it's a distraction. It slows down communication. And I think it really draws away from the important public health messages," Dr. Jay Butler, CDC's deputy director of infectious diseases, said in an interview.
The report also cites examples of the former president releasing questionable COVID-19 advice from the White House podium, saying in response to new CDC guidance recommending face masks, "I don't think I'm going to be doing it...wearing a face mask as I greet presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens - I just don't see it. Maybe I'll change my mind, but this will pass and hopefully it will pass very quickly," Trump said on April 3, 2020.
"This agency and its critical health information cannot be vulnerable to undue influence," Schuchat said during a review the following year in March 2021. "It is imperative for the American people to trust the CDC."
In August, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted the agency had failed "expectations" in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic as she announced a series of changes to include clearer, plainer communication with the American people. Earlier this year, Redfield supported the proposed overhaul to the CDC.
Republicans blasted Monday's House report, calling it "partisan" and vowing to conduct their own investigations next year if they win back the House or the Senate in November's midterm elections.