Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are speaking out about the ongoing opposition they have reportedly faced from the White House while trying to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
According to CNN, the disconnect between the White House and CDC officials continues to widen as global health experts insist they have been sidelined by the Trump administration. Current officials with the federal agency, who have opted to remain anonymous, are voicing their concerns about the handling of the coronavirus.
“We’ve been muzzled,” said a current CDC official. “What’s tough is that if we would have acted earlier on what we knew and recommended, we would have saved lives and money.”
Nancy Messonnier, the CDC director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, previously noted the severity of the situation, warning that “the disruption to everyday life might be severe.”
“This is a serious situation,” the high-ranking CDC official also said during a telebriefing in January, adding, “It’s crucial to be proactive and prepared.”
Another CDC official told CNN that the White House also disregarded the warning about Europe. Although President Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on China, the CDC was also concerned about the rapid coronavirus outbreak in Europe.
“The White House was extremely focused on China and not wanting to anger Europe … even though that’s where most of our cases were originally coming from,” the official said.
Despite the warning about the virus in the early months of the year, it was revealed that the telebriefings about the virus diminished after Vice President Mike Pence was appointed to head the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
“Then it got really dicey because obviously it became hyper-political,” a current CDC staffer noted.
Over the last four weeks, the president has appeared to defy experts’ advice on reopening, and potential medications and treatments, and overall guidance about the virus.
As states began reopening, the White House reportedly opted against releasing the CDC’s extensive reopening guidelines, as previously reported on IJR.
However, a 60-page detailed guidance on reopening schools and businesses by the CDC was recently released.
Comparing the Trump administration to previous administrations, some CDC staffers are deeply concerned about the idea of public health being disregarded due to the apparent prioritization of politics.
“The message we received in previous administrations was, you guys are the scientists,” a CDC employee said, adding, “That’s not the case this time. If the science that we are offering up contradicts a specific policy goal, then we are the problem.”
