Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attempted to silence scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), emails obtained by The New York Times show.
HHS advisor Paul Alexander, who left the department this week amid a controversy involving the agency’s top communications official Michael Caputo, criticized CDC Deputy Director Anne Schuchat over an interview she did in June in which she said there is “way too much virus across the country.”
“Her aim is to embarrass the president,” Alexander wrote in a two-page critique of her interview.
Alexander later called Schuchat “duplicitous” in an email to Caputo, who took a 60-day “leave of absence” this week after he made comments attacking career CDC scientists for being anti-Trump.
He told Caputo to “remind” Schuchat that during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu outbreak thousands of Americans had died “under her work.” He also erroneously stated that “the risk of death in children 0-19 years of age is basically 0 (zero) … PERIOD … she has lied.”
According to other emails obtained by the Times, Caputo sought to discipline a CDC press officer who approved several interviews between a CDC epidemiologist and NPR after the White House moved data collection responsibilities from the CDC to HHS.
“I need to know who did it,” Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide, wrote. After not receiving a response a day later, he said: “I have not received a response to my email for 20 hours. This is unacceptable … I need this information to properly manage department communications. If you disobey my directions, you will be held accountable.”
One CDC communications staffer asked other senior officials how to respond, saying they are “uncomfortable turning over our employee’s name to Mr. Caputo, given the hostility of the message.”
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JUST IN: Emails show HHS officials attempting to silence CDC scientists amid coronavirus pandemic: NYT https://t.co/k14aB5AFfX pic.twitter.com/6ltXK1onaO
— The Hill (@thehill) September 18, 2020
I’m reasonably sure there is something illegal about meddling with the CDC and I also suspect Trump is behind it. So is anyone in DC going to investigate and , if these actions are illegal, prosecute all who are responsible?
I think the dems are overwhelmed with investigations at this point. There seems to be no way of stopping an out-of-control president when his entire party is also corrupt and refuses to remove him. At this point I’m wondering if the dems have just decided it is too late to do much except wait and hope they win big in November.
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