Grrrrrrr....Trump officials seek greater control over CDC reports because they don't agree with him
Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have sought to change, delay and prevent the release of reports about the coronavirus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they were viewed as undermining President Trumps message that the pandemic is under control.
Michael Caputo, the top HHS spokesman, said in an interview Saturday that he and one of his advisers have been seeking greater scrutiny of the CDCs weekly scientific dispatches, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, for the past 3½ months. The adviser, Paul Alexander, has sent repeated emails to the CDC seeking changes and demanding that the reports be halted until he could make edits.
The emails, first reported late Friday by Politico, describe the CDC documents, widely known as the MMWR, as being hit pieces on the administration. Caputo confirmed the authenticity of the emails.
The emails echo the sentiments from an earlier attack by Alexander, reported in The Washington Post in July, about an MMWR on the potential risk of the coronavirus to pregnant women. In that email, Alexander also accused the CDC of undermining the president. The emails are the latest evidence of how the nations top public health agency is coming under intense pressure from Trump and his allies, who are playing down the dangers of the pandemic ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
--PayWall--
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/12/trump-control-over-cdc-reports/