WASHINGTON – Congressional investigators say Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield may have directed officials to delete a contentious email sent by a Trump appointee that demanded the health agency halt weekly COVID-19 mortality reports that the official called CDC “hit pieces on the administration.”
The revelation came from Dr. Charlotte Kent, the head of the scientific publications branch and editor of the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), after she testified Monday behind closed doors before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. It comes as the U.S. on Wednesday reported more than 3,000 COVID-19 deaths for the first time, a single-day toll worse than 9/11. New infections are also booming, leaving hospitals across the nation with bed shortages and prompting stay-at-home orders in some places and mask mandates in 38 states.
Kent said she was told to delete a four-page email by a colleague who said the direction came from Redfield, which the committee says could violate a federal law that is punishable by up to three years in prison.
The email was sent by Paul Alexander, who at the time of the Aug. 8 email was the scientific adviser to Health and Human Services spokesman Michael Caputo. The email includes misspellings, demands and accusations that the CDC was aiming to hurt Trump with its reporting. Both Alexander and Caputo have since left their roles in the department.
“This is designed to hurt this Presidnet for their reasons which I am not interested in. I am intersted in this or any President being served fairly and that tax payers money not be used for political reasons,” Alexander wrote in the 11:42 p.m. email, which was obtained by Politico. “They CDC, work for him. The public wants honesty and fair reporting so that they can be informed, not to be decieved.”
The email demands that the weekly reports be halted unless Alexander approves of them first. Alexander goes through several MMWR articles on the ability of children to get and spread COVID-19 and accuses the CDC of bias and misleading Americans with data.
“The reports must be read by someone outside of CDC like myself, and we cannot allow the reporting to go on as it has been, for it is outrageous. Its lunacy,” he argued in the email, according to Politico. “They may say ‘it’s the data’; I agree on one level, but they are constantly reporting incompletely and writing in a manner to make the nation run and dig a hole and climb inside with their children for 10 years.”
Kent told the committee, “I was instructed to delete the email,” and explained that when she went to look for the memo, it had already been removed from her inbox. “I went to look for it after I had been told to delete it, and it was already gone,” she said, according to the committee.
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Redfield, in a statement, responded to Kent’s claims about the email, which he was copied on.
“Regarding the email in question, I instructed CDC staff to ignore Dr. Alexander’s comments,” he said. “As I testified before Congress, I am fully committed to maintaining the independence of the MMWR, and I stand by that statement.”
The Department of Health and Human Services refuted the thrust of the committee’s findings and in a statement said the “characterization of the conversation with Dr. Kent is irresponsible.”
“We urge the Subcommittee to release the transcript in full which will show that during her testimony Dr. Kent repeatedly said there was no political interference in the MMWR process,” the agency said in a statement before stating the committee is “not operating in good faith.”
Kent also told lawmakers the CDC delayed publication of a study until after Redfield testified over the summer during a hearing where he argued schools should reopen. About 15 minutes after the conclusion of the hearing, the study was released and showed the virus spread at a kids summer camp in Georgia, the committee said.
“I am deeply concerned that the Trump Administration’s political meddling with the nation’s coronavirus response has put American lives at greater risk, and that Administration officials may have taken steps to conceal and destroy evidence of this dangerous conduct,” said Rep. James Clyburn, who chairs the committee.
The committee has requested a transcribed interview with Redfield on Dec. 17 and threatened to issue subpoenas if HHS did not turn over documents by Tuesday.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/12/10/cdc-director-robert-redfield-accused-having-scientist-delete-email/3884240001/
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