*damning inside account* Trump Appointees Detail the Crushing of the CDC

[underpants]

Having trouble with my phone. Very worth the read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/16/us/politics/cdc-trump.html

Kyle McGowan, a former chief of staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his deputy, Amanda Campbell, go public on the Trump administration’s manipulation of the agency.


Everyone wants to describe the day that the light switch flipped and the C.D.C. was sidelined. It didn’t happen that way,” Mr. McGowan said. “It was more of like a hand grasping something, and it slowly closes, closes, closes, closes until you realize that, middle of the summer, it has a complete grasp on everything at the C.D.C.”


Mr. McGowan recalled a White House fixated on the economic implications of public health. He and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the C.D.C. director, negotiated with Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, over social distancing guidelines for restaurants, as Mr. Vought argued that specific spacing recommendations would be too onerous for businesses to enforce.

“It is not the C.D.C.’s role to determine the economic viability of a guidance document,” Mr. McGowan said.


“Every time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging won,” Mr. McGowan said

[dutch777]

1. I expect hearings and hope that Biden addresses this ASAP. Moreover, DOJ, CDC, PO and others...

...need guaranteed independence from undue political influence. Be that oversight boards that report to Congress and the public (transparency, what a concept!). We can't let justice, health, etc. to the immediate and wispy whims of technically unqualified politicians. And this goes to our relationship with WHO and others internationally so when we face global crises, of which more and more are likely, we not only have a cohesive national level strategy (what a concept!) but world wide cooperation as well.

And to make all this work, there needs to be teeth in Congressional subpoenas that don't allow them to be ignored or delayed so there can be quick public scrutiny of these kind of dangerous executive overreaches and bad decisions that get to be made in the dark back rooms.

[LiberalArkie]

2. They need to be issued a subpoena and if they don't appear lock them up like Susan McDougal

[dutch777]

3. Yes!

[dalton99a]

4. This sabotage must not be swept under the rug