Where is the CDC? How Trump sidelined the public health agency in a pandemic
By Oliver Milman in The Guardian:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been at the heart of activity in previous health emergencies but its science-based approach is out of favour at the White House
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the world’s premier public health agency, was stooped over the White House lectern. He conceded that the coronavirus pandemic had “overwhelmed” the US, and that there would be a “difficult” second wave of the virus later in the year.
His boss had different thoughts, however. Redfield, a career virologist, made way for Donald Trump, the US president and former host of The Apprentice, who intoned to the cameras that Redfield had been “totally misquoted” in a previous Washington Post story warning of a damaging resurgence of Covid-19. Invited to clarify, Redfield confirmed he was quoted correctly. Trump again took to the lectern to try a different tack. “You may not even have corona coming back,” the president said, contradicting Redfield again. “Just so you understand.”
The CDC director, looking on impassively, would not appear at a White House coronavirus press conference again.
The exchange, on 22 April, was seen by some CDC staff as grim confirmation that the agency’s venerated expertise has been shoved to one side as Covid-19 continues to ravage the US, causing more than 80,000 deaths so far.
Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/14/where-is-the-cdc-trump-covid-19-pandemic
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