“A set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top
disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders
deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day-care
centers and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic has been shelved by
the Trump administration.
“The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention team, titled ‘Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again
Framework,’ was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners,
educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. It was
supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the
guidance ‘would never see the light of day,’ according to a CDC official. The
official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke to the Associated
Press on condition of anonymity.
“The AP obtained a copy from a second federal official who
was not authorized to release it. The guidance was described in AP stories last week, prior to the White
House decision to shelve it.
“The Trump administration has been closely controlling the
release of guidance and information during the pandemic spurred by a new
coronavirus that scientists are still trying to understand, with the president
himself leading freewheeling daily briefings until last week.
“Traditionally, it’s been the CDC’s role to give the public
and local officials guidance and science-based information during public health
crises. During this one, however, the CDC has not had a regular,
pandemic-related news briefing in nearly two months. CDC Director Dr. Robert
Redfield has been a member of the White House coronavirus task force, but
largely absent from public appearances.
“The dearth of real-time, public information from the nation’s
experts has struck many current and former government health officials as
dangerous. ‘CDC has always been the public health agency Americans turn
to in a time of crisis,’ said Dr. Howard Koh, a Harvard University professor
and former health official in the Obama administration during the H1N1 ‘swine
flu’ pandemic in 2009. ‘The standard in a crisis is to turn to them for the
latest data and latest guidance and the latest press briefing. That has not
occurred, and everyone sees that.’
“The Trump administration has instead sought to put the onus
on states to handle COVID-19 response. This approach to managing the pandemic
has been reflected in President Trump’s public statements, from the assertion
that he isn’t responsible for the country’s lackluster early testing efforts,
to his description last week of the federal government’s role as a ‘supplier of
last resort’ for states in need of testing aid…
“The guidance contained detailed advice for making site-specific
decisions related to reopening schools, restaurants, summer camps, churches,
day-care centers and other institutions. It had been widely shared within CDC,
and included detailed ‘decision trees,’ flow charts to be used by local
officials to think through different scenarios. One page of the document can be
found on the CDC website via search engines, but it did not appear to be linked
to any other CDC pages…
“Still, behind the scenes, CDC scientists like those who
produced the guidance for ‘Opening Up America Again’ are working to get
information to local governments. The agency still employs hundreds of the
world’s most respected epidemiologists and doctors, who in times of crisis are
looked to for their expertise, said former CDC director Tom Frieden. People
have clicked on the CDC’s coronavirus website more than 1.2 billion times.
States that directly reach out to the CDC can tap guidance that’s been
prepared, [and] that the White House has not released…” (LosAngeles Times).
"...We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..."
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