"The politically appointed HHS spokesperson and his team demanded and received the right to review CDC’s scientific reports to health professionals."
"The health department’s politically appointed communications aides have demanded the right to review and seek changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly scientific reports charting the progress of the coronavirus pandemic, in what officials characterized as an attempt to intimidate the reports’ authors and water down their communications to health professionals.
In some cases, emails from communications aides to CDC Director Robert Redfield and other senior officials openly complained that the agency’s reports would undermine President Donald Trump's optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to emails reviewed by POLITICO and three people familiar with the situation.
CDC officials have fought back against the most sweeping changes, but have increasingly agreed to allow the political officials to review the reports and, in a few cases, compromised on the wording, according to three people familiar with the exchanges. The communications aides’ efforts to change the language in the CDC’s reports have been constant across the summer and continued as recently as Friday afternoon."
Dan Diamond reports for Politico September 11, 2020.
SEE ALSO:
"Trump Officials Seek Greater Control Over CDC Reports On Coronavirus" (Washington Post)
"Political Appointees Meddled in C.D.C.’s ‘Holiest of the Holy’ Health Reports" (New York Times)
"Caputo, Aide Under Fire For Trying To Alter CDC Covid-19 Reports" (Buffalo News)
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