We’re in a public health crisis. Where’s the CDC?

The country’s top public health experts have been sidelined.

Beth Mole – Mar 23, 2020 6:25 pm | 357

US President Donald Trump points to a reporter during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, at the White House on March 22, 2020, in Washington, DC. Credit: Getty | Eric Baradat

Lockdown

According to a subsequent report in The New York Times, that dissonance led to Trump screaming over the phone to Alex M. Azar II, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC. The February 26 appointment of Pence displaced Azar, who was previously leading the administration’s response efforts.

The appointment was quickly followed by reports that the White House was clamping down on messaging about the impending crisis and that all statements from public health officials would need to be cleared by Pence’s office.

Dr. Messonnier led a few more press briefings after that, but the messaging at times seemed stilted. That included a rare and conspicuous reference to Trump when Dr. Messonnier emphasized that the number-one priority of the CDC—and the president—is the health and safety of the American people. It was the first time she had ever mentioned the president in a press briefing on COVID-19.

In a press briefing on March 3, a reporter asked her directly if the White House was censoring her and the agency’s messages. She did not directly answer the question, only responding that the agency had “been very open and able to answer lots of different questions.”

In the absence of the CDC’s telebriefings, Pence’s coronavirus task force had begun holding regular briefings. But the briefings have largely not included voices from the country’s leading public health agency, such as CDC Director Robert Redfield or CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat.

Pants on fire

Moreover, the health messaging has been an ongoing debacle. In numerous instances, Trump has given misleading and downright false information about the dire pandemic. That includes his clumsy announcement of a project with Google and Verily to develop COVID-19 information and testing websites.

In a briefing March 18, Trump falsely claimed that the coronavirus had “snuck up on us” and that its spread in the US was “a very unforeseen thing.” PolitiFact rated that claim a “Pants on Fire”-level falsehood.

In a March 9 briefing, Trump falsely claimed that the drug chloroquine had proven effective at treating COVID-19 and that the Food and Drug Administration had approved it for that use. It has not been shown effective at treating COVID-19, and the agency has not approved it for that use, the FDA noted in a statement.

With many of the country’s top public health experts in the CDC sidelined during this health crisis, there’s little ability to clarify such essential public health messages. The job has largely fallen to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fauci is the country’s top infectious disease expert and has advised six presidents on public health crises, from HIV/AIDS to Ebola and Zika.

But in a series of recent interviews, Fauci revealed just how difficult of a job it has been to advise Trump, noting that he “cannot do the impossible” or “jump in front of the microphone and push [Trump] down.”