Senate Democrats Want The Inspector General To Investigate COVID-19 Interference By HHS

Senate Democrats on Thursday penned a letter to Christi Grimm, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, seeking an investigation into whether Trump administration political appointees interfered with the COVID-19 response to downplay the virus' severity, Politico reported.

“The consistent pattern running through these reports of political interference is the ongoing effort to minimize the seriousness of the virus,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other prominent Democrats wrote in a letter to Grimm. “We ask that you immediately investigate whether, and to what extent, political interference has undermined the scientific and public health processes.”

Senate Democrats argued the Trump administration had a hand in shaping policies at agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- even when health professionals and seasoned experts objected to administration demands.

Politico reported politically appointed HHS officials allegedly sought to undermine and even halt the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. The officials argued the reports didn’t stick to the optimistic narrative President Donald Trump was trying to promote.

Trump's efforts to downplay the virus are well documented. At a campaign rally in Ohio the president argued the coronavirus poses little threat to young people and “affects virtually nobody,” as the number of Americans who died from COVID-19 surpassed 200,000 in the United States. The number stood at 207,550 Thursday afternoon.

“It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that’s what it really affects,” Trump told supporters at an airport outside Toledo, Ohio.

In an interview, Trump told Bob Woodward he downplayed the severity of the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was life-threatening and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu.

“This is deadly stuff,” Mr. Trump said in one of 18 interviews with Woodward for his book, “Rage.”

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” the president told Woodward in audio recordings made available on The Washington Post website. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”

The letter was composed by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who oversaw the creation of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee as part of the CARES Act, which empowered inspectors general to further investigate the COVID-19 response.

HHS downplayed the letter and labeled it an attempt to “undermine” the administration’s response.

“Under President Trump, HHS has always provided public health information based on sound science,” the spokesperson said. “Throughout the COVID-19 response, science and data have driven and will continue to drive the decisions at HHS.”

Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mich., and 26 other Democrats joined Schumer and Peters in signing the letter.