Congress investigators on Friday released emails and documents showing the Department of Health and Human Services appointed under former President Donald Trump regularly boasted about their efforts to change staff scientists. reports on the coronavirus.
Officials tried rewrites the weekly scientific reports so that Trump could use the data to support his political views about wearing masks and reopening the economy, according to emails released by the House Select subcommittee on the Coronavirus on Friday.
“Our investigation has shown that Trump administration officials have had a persistent pattern of political interference in the country’s public health response to the coronavirus pandemic, dominating and bullying scientists and making damaging decisions that have spread the virus faster,” he said. the chairman of the committee said James Clyburn, DS.C.
Clyburn accuses former White House adviser Covid-19, dr. Scott Atlas, that he advocates for ‘policies that can spread the virus widely among many Americans.
Documents obtained by the panel show that Atlas’ was aware of and possibly involved in attempts to attack reports issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to reverse President Trump’s onslaught. to justify ‘, Clyburn said.
Atlas and other political appointments within HHS have on several occasions succeeded in changing language and influencing the tone in the CDC’s weekly reports on morbidity and mortality, providing weekly public updates on scientists’ findings. found the panel. MMWR’s are grounded scientific studies that are usually not susceptible to political pressure.
The investigation was only launched after reports surfaced that Trump was demanding the right to change the CDC’s reports. The emails show that Trump administration officials boast about changing the reports.
“Small victory but still a victory and jippie !!!” Former science adviser Paul Alexander wrote in a September 9 email to let Michael Caputo, then head of public affairs, know that he was successful in launching a CDC report on the Covid-19 change transmission in school children.
Only two days later, Alexander asked for Atlas’ help to change another CDC report on Covid-19 deaths among young people who, according to Alexander, are ‘eligible’ to keep schools closed.
“Can you help me make an essay,” Alexander wrote to Atlas. “Let’s advise the president and get permission to put it forward, because it’s going to last for the weekend, so we have to blunt the edge, because it’s misleading.”
Earlier this month, Alexander Atlas asked for another draft to oppose. masks for children and school closures during the pandemic.
“I think a short 400 words written about this will help people go back to school. I think we can lock up children (and healthy adults) and mask them, dampen their functional immune systems. Do you think it can done? ?? “Alexander wrote in an September 3 email.
Alexander famously said that “we want them infected” in an July 4 email released by Clyburn’s investigators for a herd immunity strategy.
In the autumn pushing for the same strategy in the autumn, Atlas writes: ‘Universities should remain open, even if they see an increase in cases … Yes, cases will increase among young people as they interact socially, but it should not cause panic, “echoes dangerous herd immunity theories, in an op-ed published on September 15th. A draft of the op-ed was first edited and revised by Alexander, according to an email dated September 8th.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser, earlier dismissed the idea of allowing the coronavirus to spread herd immunity last year as dangerous “nonsense.”
“Dr. Fauci has no data, no science to support what he says about reopening the school, no one … he’s scaring the nation wrong,” Alexander wrote to senior HHS officials last summer, claiming that Fauci scared parents.
In another example, Trump officials tried to camouflage Covid-19 case numbers with other statistics to advance political hotspots.
“I know the president wants us to summarize the economic costs of non-reopening. We need good estimates to be able to say something like: 50,000 more deaths from cancer! 40,000 more heart attacks! 25,000 more suicides!” Caputo wrote to Alexander on May 16 email. “You need to take ownership of these numbers. This is particularly important for what you and I want to achieve,” Caputo added in a follow-up email.
After the Trump White House appointed Nina Witkofsky as acting chief of staff of the CDC last summer, Alexander seemed satisfied with her influence on the agency.
‘The last 2 MMWR reports have been more positive than usual, and I find that [that] encouraging, “Alexander wrote to Witkofsky in an August 3 email.” Maybe you have a big impact and it’s great. Well done!”
In more emails, Alexander has his influence on the agency’s reports. In another example, Alexander boasted about the changes to the ‘key opening sentence’ of a report on a Covid outbreak in a Georgia summer camp.
The line emphasizes the importance of understanding the transfer of youth to develop leadership for the school. The line has been removed and replaced with another line that states that there is ‘limited data’ on coronavirus transmission in children under 21 years of age. The CDC explained that the line had been removed and replaced due to the “thoughtful remarks” of Alexander and CDC leaders.
Dr Robert Redfield, then CDC director, said last year that reports issued by the agency were not affected by political interference. “At no time has the scientific integrity of the MMWR been compromised. And I can say that it will not compromise under my care,” Redfield testified to the Senate in September.
However, Redfield told news outlets last month that Trump officials have repeatedly tried to change MMWRs they dislike, according to The Washington Post. The then secretary of the HHS, Alex Azar, denied the charge.
Congress investigators are looking for more documents of appointments involved in the email, and others.
Alexander and Atlas did not immediately respond to a request for comment.