Trump Administration Rebukes Experts Again, Sidelines CDC’s Guide to Reopening Economy

As the coronavirus pandemic escalated, public health experts have faced recrimination for contradicting President Trump, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may have fallen victim to this trend. The Associated Press exclusively reported that the Trump administration has “shelved a document created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places.”

The 17-page report was due to be published this Friday, but a CDC official told the AP that scientists were told it “would never see the light of day.” In prior presidencies, the CDC would be the entity communicating advice to the public and local officials, but Trump has usurped that control in favor of press conferences that usually feature himself.

A Washington Post analysis found that at the daily White House press briefings, “since the federal guidelines were announced on March 16, Trump has spoken 63 % of the time, compared with [Dr. Deborah] Birx at 10% and [Dr. Anthony] Fauci at 5%.” The CDC has not had a pandemic-related news briefing in nearly two months, and its director, Robert Redfield, was publicly rebuked by the president two weeks ago after stating that “there’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through.”

Redfield appeared at the next daily White House briefing and said he was quoted accurately, but also followed the President’s orders and pushed back on the reporting, saying “I didn’t say that this was going to be worse. I said it was going to be more difficult and potentially complicated because we’ll have flu and coronavirus circulating at the same time.”

The White House issued its own “Opening Up America Again” report last month with guidelines that were vaguer than what is contained in the CDC’s unpublished guidance. White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany asserted at a briefing on Wednesday that states are expected to take the lead on reopening, saying “We’ve consulted individually with states, but as I said, it’s (a) governor-led effort. It’s a state-led effort on…which the federal government will consult.”

Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, echoed other health experts’ concerns with how the Trump administration is handling the messaging part of their coronavirus response, telling the AP that “I don’t think that any state feels that the CDC is deficient. It’s just the process of getting stuff out.”