New documents show political appointees sought to influence at least 13 reports as they ignored warnings from career officials.
The House panel probing the Trump administration’s coronavirus response released new documents detailing political appointees’ extensive efforts to modify or scuttle scientific Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, as it also ordered top Trump health officials to quickly provide documents.
Trump appointees attempted to “alter or block” at least 13 scientific reports on the coronavirus, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the chair of the House select subcommittee on coronavirus, wrote on Monday in a letter that was shared with POLITICO.
“Top political officials at [Health and Human Services] and [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] not only tolerated these efforts, but in some cases aided them,” Clyburn added in the letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield.
Clyburn issued subpoenas to Azar and Redfield, ordering them to produce documents by Dec. 30 that Clyburn said his panel has sought for months.
The panel’s probe into administration’s coronavirus response began in mid-September, shortly after a POLITICO story revealed how appointees meddled with the famed Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, which are authored by career scientists and are typically free of political interference. In recent weeks, the panel released evidence alleging that Redfield ordered agency staff to delete an email that appeared to show political interference and that a political adviser repeatedly advocated a controversial “herd immunity” strategy regarded by most public health experts as reckless.
Clyburn’s subcommittee on Monday produced dozens of new documents detailing how Trump appointees — including then-science adviser Paul Alexander, the department’s top spokesperson Michael Caputo and other health department officials — worked to subvert the CDC’s MMWR reports.
Among the MMWRs that were targeted for edits: reports on the use of masks, the spread of Covid-19 in children, the virus’ transmission during an April 7 primary election in Milwaukee and other reports that were seen as politically sensitive.
The documents released by the subcommittee further detailed appointees’ extensive efforts to suppress and even write a rebuttal to planned reports on hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump as a coronavirus treatment despite little evidence of its effectiveness. CDC has historically insisted that political appointees not review the draft content of the MMWRs, but in at least one case, Trump appointees obtained the full text of a pending report.
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New documents show political appointees sought to influence at least 13 reports as they ignored warnings from career officials https://t.co/xax3EKVAFU
— POLITICO (@politico) December 21, 2020
JUST IN: House committee issues subpoena for Azar, Redfield documents on political interference at CDC https://t.co/ohBKqe8xwZ pic.twitter.com/0qjEZv0wil
— The Hill (@thehill) December 21, 2020
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