Report: White House Suppresses CDC expert report on how to reopen country safely
The Associated Press is reporting that the Trump administration is suppressing a report by Experts from the CDC that gives detailed guidelines on how to open the country safely. The significance of this: the White House wants to go full speed ahead in opening the country so it doesn’t want the expert advice out there to contradict the speed of its own re-opening push.
The Daily Beast gives a good summary of the report. Here’s part of it:
The Associated Press reported the nation’s top infectious-disease investigators wrote a 17-page report to help faith leaders, business owners, educators, and state and local officials as they gradually reopen. It was slated to be published last week, but a CDC official told AP that the agency’s scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day.” A person close to the White House’s coronavirus task force told AP that White House officials didn’t want to provide detailed guidance for how specific sectors can reopen, preferring general guidance for all.
GO HERE to read the full AP report.
Reasons why CDC guidance was shelved:
1. Guidelines say states should not reopen while their Covid cases are increasing.
2. Trump admin wants states to reopen regardless.
3. White House does not want to be accountable, and guidelines would make them so. https://t.co/6VXqDaQSFc— Richard Stengel (@stengel) May 7, 2020
Here is the link to the CDC document, cited in @AP report, providing step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the still-raging outbreak.
It has been shelved by the Trump administration: https://t.co/QKuQ7nsiPc
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) May 7, 2020
Draft CDC document included specific guidance for six categories: child care programs; schools and day camps; communities of faith; employers with vulnerable workers; restaurants and bars; mass transit administrators. The WH says it will not implement it https://t.co/pGHjCzlXKD
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 7, 2020
The WH is suppressing guidance to state and local leaders from the scientists and public health experts at the CDC about how to safely re-open their communities.
The deaths that result will be on the hands of the @POTUS.https://t.co/FJ8mDPchsI— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 7, 2020
Connecticut governor urges White House to release CDC reopening guidance: "What have you got to hide?" https://t.co/Q1bdaZCMaT pic.twitter.com/k7VlF7rvOR
— The Hill (@thehill) May 7, 2020
WH task force official pushing back tells me, "Issuing overly specific instructions—that CDC leadership never cleared—for how various types of businesses open up would be overly prescriptive and broad for the various circumstances states are experiencing throughout the country."
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) May 7, 2020
The CDC prepared a 17-page report on how to safely reopen businesses. The report suggested restaurants and bars should install sneeze guards at cash registers and discontinue buffets, salad bars and drink stations. Then the Trump administration shelved it. https://t.co/hjGsKdrkch
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 7, 2020
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