Washington Washington – According to two former CDC officials who were at the agency at the time, top White House officials during the summer pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the risk of coronavirus in young people and encourage schools to resume.
The New York Times first reported that White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence’s office aide and White House Coronavirus Task Force coordinator Dr. Deborah Burks was involved in trying to promote the data to the CDC. The virus was slowing down. Former CDC officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told CBS News that the information provided in the Times report was accurate.
Olivia Troy, a former Pence adviser working on the White House coronavirus task force, told the Times that she had been repeatedly told by Pence’s chief of staff, Mark Short, that there was a decline in cases among young people. Troy left the White House in August and has since become one Voice critic President and administration coronavirus response.
The Times also reported that the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services pressured the CDC to include data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which said closed school closures could affect children’s mental health and argued that family Members had fewer viruses. The Times received an email from Burks to CDC director Robert Redfield asking him to include the document as a “background” in the CDC guidelines for reopening schools.
During the summer, President Trump repeatedly argued that schools should be reopened for individual education. “We want to open them up quickly, beautifully in the fall,” he said at an event in July.
Another CDC official involved in writing the guide told CBS News that reopening the Berks School was effective in shaping the surrounding message, and forced them to focus on risk factors for children if they stayed home instead of the risks associated with going back to class. . The official said the White House “tasted by cutting our data to fit its data.”
The man said the CDC scientists were most alarmed by the “preface” of the guidance posted on the website, which emphasized the potential negative impact on children if schools were not opened quickly. While the CDC included some data about it in their guidelines, they were opposed to making it a top focus.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Brian Morjestern said in a statement to CBS News that the president “trusts the advice of all his top officials who agree that reopening schools safely is in the public health interest, and related risks posed to young people The risks of being out of school indefinitely increase. “
A White House official slammed Birks’ close relationship with Redbild and told CBS News that “Birbirs are forcing Dr. Redfield to do something he does not agree with, with a blur on his face.”
“Conversations or exchanges of comments between friends and colleagues rarely require political allegations,” the official said.
Redfield has had disagreements with the White House in recent weeks. The CDC director said after the president challenged Redfield earlier this month that the vaccine would be widely available in the second or third quarter of next year, saying Redfield was “confused” and “made a mistake.” NBC News also reported this week that Redfield has recruited a new member of the coronavirus task force, Dr. Scott has criticized Atlas.
“Everything he says is wrong,” Redfield said during a phone call heard by NBC News. “
Finn Gomez, Weijia Jiang, Paula Reed and Kristin Brown contributed to this report.
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