Covid 19 coronavirus: Trump officials attacked the government Covid reports – investigation

The Trump administration’s political appointees tried to block or change more than a dozen government reports that detailed scientific findings about the spread of the coronavirus, according to a U.S. House of Representatives panel investigating the alleged interference.

Democratic Rep. James Clyburn said today that coronavirus subcommittee investigators have found evidence of a “political pressure campaign” to “intimidate” professionals at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as far as possible. it was an attempt to “paralyze the national response to the coronavirus.” in a misguided effort to achieve herd immunity. “

Herd immunity is short for a theory, rejected by most public health experts, that society can better protect itself by allowing younger people to become infected and develop natural immunity until vaccines are widely available. .

Accusing Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield of obstructing their investigation, Clyburn issued subpoenas forcing them to turn over piles of documents and emails by December 30. .

In a statement, HHS responded that there was no political interference, adding: “While the administration focuses on vaccines, the subcommittee focuses on cheap shots to create headlines and mislead the American people.”

The committee’s main findings were detailed in a 20-page letter to Azar and Redfield that focused on the actions of two political appointees earlier this year at HHS.

New York political operative and Trump loyalist Michael Caputo installed himself as the department’s chief spokesman during a period of high tension between White House officials and Azar. Caputo brought in health researcher Paul Alexander as an advisor. Both men have since left the agency.

But for months, the letter alleges, they ran a campaign to block or change articles about the Covid-19 pandemic in a CDC publication called Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, which is closely followed by the community of public health.

With Alexander firing internal emails, investigators said the campaign:

• Attempted to block or change more than a dozen MMWR articles, sometimes making changes to the draft language and at other times delaying publication as internal arguments flared.

• Intensely challenged articles detailing scientific findings on the spread of Covid-19 among children. This came at a time when President Donald Trump was strongly urging a return to in-person education in the fall. These include reports of outbreaks in summer camps, data on hospitalization rates among children and findings about a dangerous condition called “multi-inflammatory syndrome,” which affects some children who become ill from the coronavirus.

• Attacked a draft MMWR article that showed an increase in prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that Trump adopted early on as a “game changer” only to finally discover that it could do more harm than good. HHS even wrote an opinion piece refuting the CDC article, although it was never published. The opinion piece accused the MMWR authors of trying to grab the headlines, calling them “a disgrace to the public service.”

While some career HHS officials apparently tried to defuse Alexander’s criticism by making changes to the wording or headlines of MMWR articles, at least one faced pressure tactics.

Bill Hall, a senior career spokesperson, wrote to Caputo and Alexander to explain that the CDC publication was similar to a peer-reviewed scientific journal and that HHS had historically respected their independence.

The HHS public affairs office that Caputo once ran “is not an office of medical or scientific programs,” Hall wrote. “As a long-standing policy issue, we do not participate in the cleanup of scientific papers, as that field must remain an independent process.”

The HHS statement said Alexander’s emails “did not shape the department’s policy or strategy at all.”

Clyburn explained that he took the step of issuing subpoenas in part because his investigation has yielded evidence suggesting attempts to destroy records. A lawsuit for materials by Congress increases the legal risks for anyone who tries to destroy or conceal materials.

Dr. Charlotte Kent, head of scientific publications at the CDC, previously told committee researchers that she was ordered to delete an email from Alexander attacking an MMWR article on child-to-child transmission of the coronavirus. Kent said he believed the order came from Redfield. It was passed on to him through another official.

Redfield responded at the time that he had told CDC staff to ignore Alexander’s email and that he was fully committed to maintaining the independence of the MMWR’s health reports.

HHS said today that Kent’s email “was never deleted, it was archived.”

– AP