One official said, “We need our doctors to focus on the response to the pandemic.”
The White House on Friday blocked Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from testifying before Congress next week on how to reopen schools safely, ABC News confirmed.
The White House is defending the decision to block Redfield’s testimony in a statement from an anonymous official.
“Dr. Redfield has testified on the hill at least four times in the past three months. We need our doctors to focus on the pandemic response,” said the official.
The CDC has said it is still working on an additional guide for schools that is not likely to be ready until the end of the month now. The delay in delivering a clear national plan for schools has angered many local officials and teachers, who say they lack the information they need on whether it is safe to return to school next month.
Rep. Bobby Scott, the Democratic chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor who invited Redfield to testify, said he wants school reopens to be guided by public health experts.
“It is alarming that the Trump administration is preventing CDC from appearing before the committee at a time when its experience and guidance is so critical to the health and safety of students, parents and educators,” said Scott, D-Va.
“This lack of transparency greatly hurts the many communities across the country that face difficult decisions about reopening schools this fall,” he added.
Federal guidance on schools has been confusing and unclear. While the CDC has recommended that schools impose safety measures like masks and keep students six feet away, if possible, President Donald Trump criticized the guidelines as too harsh and expensive. Vice President Mike Pence had promised additional recommendations by the end of this week.
Redfield later told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the CDC was not planning to review its initial guidelines.
“It is not a review of the guidelines, it is just to provide additional information to help schools use the guidance we present,” Redfield said in an interview.
“At this time, we are continuing to work with local jurisdictions to determine how they want to carry the guidance portfolio we have given them to make it practical for their schools to reopen,” said Redfield, emphasizing that the guidelines are not a requirement, but rather they are “Intentionally non-prescriptive” to provide a “spectrum of strategies” for local jurisdictions.
He added: “The only thing I really want to say that I would say would make me personally sad and I know that my agency is in individuals, is to use these that we exposed as a reason to keep schools closed.”
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
.
