The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is defending its controversial new guidance on coronavirus testing after writing from various medical groups and accusations of political intervention.
Earlier this week, the CDC quickly revised its guidance on coronavirus testing, dropping its previous recommendation to test anyone who came in close contact with a person infected with Covid-19 – even those who have no symptoms. The bureau previously advised anyone to test with a “recent known or suspected exposure” to the virus, saying the virus could be transmitted a few days before the symptoms appear, such as by asymptomatic people who never develop it.
Medical groups and some lawmakers were concerned about the new guidance, saying that early and widespread testing of asymptomatic people could help break out of the US
The CDC, which referred calls to the Health and Human Services department all day Wednesday, defended the change in a statement from CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield released at 10 a.m. Wednesday night.
“Anyone who needs a COVID-19 test can get a test,” Redfield said. “Anyone who wol a test does not necessarily need in test; the key is to engage the necessary public health community in deciding with the appropriate follow-up action. “
Redfield said the new guidelines were “coordinated in conjunction with the White House Coronavirus Task Force”, adding that they “received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts.”
In a conference call with journalists on Wednesday, Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health administration, who is leading the Trump administration’s test effort, defended the policy change and said it empowers local health care professionals and clients. He also denied accusations of bowing to political pressure from the Trump administration.
“Let me tell you, just in advance, that the new guidelines are a CDC action,” he said, adding that members of the White House Coronavirus task force, including Drs. Anthony Fauci and Redfield, discussed the new guidelines and agreed.
But Fauci later told CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta that he was “in general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or discussion about the new test recommendations.”
The New York Times reported later Wednesday that two federal health officials said the CDC was under pressure to change the guidance of top officials at the White House and HHS.
“There was no weight on the scales by the president as the vice president as secretary Azar,” Giroir said on the call, referring to HHS secretary Alex Azar. “We have written it all down, the documents, before it ever got to a place where the political leadership would have seen it itself, and this document was approved by the task force by consensus.”
It remains unclear exactly where the new guidance originated, although Giroir said it was a “CDC action”. Unlike whoever is responsible for the updated guidance, a former CDC director, epidemiologists and medical associations have criticized the update as a setback in efforts to fight the coronavirus in the US
The Society for Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association called for the “immediate reversal” of the renewal in a joint statement.
“It is essential that public health guidelines be rooted in the best available scientific evidence,” the two groups said. “Testing of asymptomatic individuals exposed to a person with COVID-19 remains a critical evidence-based strategy to contain the pandemic and reduce transmission.”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and California Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, said their states will continue testing asymptomatic people.
“We will not follow the CDC guidance. I consider it political propaganda. I would warn private companies against following the CDC guidance. I think it is completely indefensible on its face. I think it is inherently contradictory. “It is the exact opposite of what the CDC has said,” Cuomo said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. “That either the CDC is schizophrenic or they admit error in their first position as this is just political dictation.”
Cuomo pointed to remarks made earlier by President Donald Trump in June in which he said “testing is a double-edged sword.” He added that he directed officials to “delay testing, please.” White House officials later said the president had “clearly spoken in jest.”
“The utter failure to establish a robust national test system is at the very core of President Trump’s incompetence in dealing with the pandemic,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Wednesday. “He thinks that by ignoring the truth of 180,000 dead he can just sweep COVID-19 under the rug and that no one will notice his failures. But his denial only makes things worse.”
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