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GAINESVILLE, Florida (AP) – The decision to archive detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts to reopen communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails. obtained by The Associated Press.
The files also show that after the AP reported Thursday that the guidance document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be quickly approved for approval.
The plethora of emails show that the nation’s top public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spent weeks working on the orientation to help the country deal with a public health emergency, just to see his work canceled by political appointees with little explanation.
The document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to assist religious leaders, business owners, educators, and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. It included detailed “decision trees” or flow charts intended to help local leaders navigate the difficult decision of whether to reopen or remain closed.
White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Friday that the documents had not been approved by CDC Director Robert Redfield. The new emails, however, show that Redfield deleted the guide.
This new CDC guide, a combination of previously published advice along with more recent information, had been endorsed and promoted by the highest levels of its leadership, including Redfield. Despite this, the administration filed it on April 30.
As early as April 10, Redfield, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, e-mailed the guidance and decision trees with President Donald Trump’s inner circle, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the chief advisor Kellyanne Conway. and Joseph Grogan, assistant to the president of internal politics. Dr Deborah Birx, Dr Anthony Fauci and other members of the working group were also included.
Three days later, CDC’s top management sent the 60-plus page report with attached flowcharts to the White House Office of Management and Budget, a step usually taken only when agencies seek final approval from the White House for documents they have already approved.
The 17-page version later released by The AP and other media was only part of the actual document presented by the CDC, and was directed at specific facilities such as bars and restaurants. The AP obtained a copy Friday of the entire document. That version is a more universal series of tiered guidelines, “Steps for All Americans in All Communities,” aimed at advising communities as a whole on testing, contact tracing, and other critical infection control measures.
On April 24, Redfield e-mailed the guidance documents to Birx and Grogan, according to a copy seen by The AP. Redfield asked Birx and Grogan for their review so that the CDC could publish the guide publicly. Guidance documents and associated decision trees, including one for meat packing plants, were attached to the Redfield email.
“We plan to post them on the CDC website once they are approved. Peace, God bless r3,” wrote the director. (Redfield’s initials are R.R.R.)
Redfield’s e-mailed comments contradict the White House’s claim Thursday that it had not yet approved the guidelines because the CDC leadership itself had not yet given them the green light.
Two days later, on April 26, the CDC had not yet received a word from the administration, according to internal communications. Robert McGowan, the CDC chief of staff who was guiding the orientation through the OMB, sent an email looking for an update. “We need them as soon as possible so that we can publish them,” wrote OMB staff member Nancy Beck.
Beck said he was awaiting review by the White House Directors Committee, a group of senior White House officials. “They must be approved before they can move forward. WH directors are in contact with the task force so that the task group is aware of the state, ”Beck wrote to McGowan.
The following day, April 27, OMB’s Satya Thallam sent the CDC a similar response: “The reopening orientation and decision tree documents went to a committee of directors in the west wing on Sunday. We have received no news about specific times for your consideration.
However, I am conveying your message: they have given strict and explicit instructions that these documents have not yet been deleted and cannot be released at this time; this includes related press statements or other communications that may preview the content or timing of the guides”. “
According to the documents, the CDC continued to ask for days about the guidance officials expected to publish before Friday, May 1, the day Trump had targeted to reopen some businesses, according to a source who was granted anonymity because he did not they were allowed to speak. to the press.
On April 30, CDC documents were killed forever.
The agency had not heard any specific criticism from either the White House Directors Committee or the coronavirus task force in days, so officials requested an update.
“The orientation should be more transversal and say when they should reopen and how to keep people safe. Fundamentally, the Task Force clarified this for further development, but not for its release, “wrote Quinn Hirsch, a staff member of the White House Office of Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), in an email to the parent agency of CDC, Department of Health and Human Services.
The CDC staff working at the orientation decided to try again.
The administration had already launched its Opening Up America Again Plan, and time was ticking. CDC staff thought that if they could get their reopening advice, it would help communities do so with detailed expert help.
But hours later, on April 30, CDC Chief of Staff McGowan told CDC staff that neither the guidance documents nor decision trees “would see the light of day,” according to three officials who declined. be named because they were not authorized to speak. to reporters.
The next day, May 1, emails showed that a CDC staff member was told “we would not even be allowed to publish decision trees.” We made the team (exhausted as they are) withdraw. ”
The CDC’s guidance was archived. Until the 7th of May.
That morning, The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration had buried the guide, even as many states had begun allowing companies to reopen.
After the story was released, the White House called the CDC and ordered them to re-file all decision trees except one that pointed to churches. An email obtained by the AP confirmed that the agency forwarded the documents Thursday night, hours after the news.
“Attached to today’s earlier application are decision trees previously submitted to both OIRA and WH Task Force, minus faith tree communities,” the email reads. “Please let us know if / when / how we can proceed from here.”
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Associated Press journalist Zeke Miller contributed to this story from Washington.
