The White House suggestions were not optional
Pro Publica has a big piece on what Trump & co have done to the CDC.
Back in May a team at the CDC was working furiously on guidance for how to not get the virus.
Butler’s team rushed to finalize the guidance for churches, synagogues and mosques that Trump’s aides had shelved in April after battling the CDC over the language. In reviewing a raft of last-minute edits from the White House, Butler’s team rejected those that conflicted with CDC research, including a worrisome suggestion to delete a line that urged congregations to “consider suspending or at least decreasing” the use of choirs.
Why do Trump’s aides get to “shelve” informed medical advice during a pandemic? Why do they get to “battle” the CDC over language? Why do the desires of the president get to edit and delete informed medical advice, especially advice on how to survive a pandemic?
On Friday, Trump’s aides called the CDC repeatedly about the guidance, according to emails. “Why is it not up?” they demanded until it was posted on the CDC website that afternoon.
The next day, a furious call came from the office of the vice president: The White House suggestions were not optional. The CDC’s failure to use them was insubordinate, according to emails at the time.
How dare they? How dare they do that? How dare they put their perceived political advantage ahead of the survival of millions? How do they sleep at night?
They restored the White House version. The danger of singing in church was left on the floor.
Early that Sunday morning, as Americans across the country prepared excitedly to return to houses of worship, Butler, a churchgoer himself, poured his anguish and anger into an email to a few colleagues.
“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do,” he wrote.
Forced for the sake of the warped politics of the evil lump of flesh in the White House.
Pro Publica has a big stash of emails and other records.
Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.
Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told. It wasn’t just worries over paying mortgages or forfeiting the prestige of the job. Many feared that if they left and spoke out, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all, and would push through even more dangerous policies.
To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”
…
Once seen as an apolitical bulwark, the CDC endured meddling on multiple fronts by officials with little or no public health experience, from Trump’s daughter Ivanka to Stephen Miller, the architect of the president’s immigration crackdown. A shifting and mysterious cast of political aides and private contractors — what one scientist described as young protégés of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wearing blue suits with red ties and beards” — crowded into important meetings about key policy decisions.
Princess Ivanka ffs. Creepy racist Stephen Miller ffs.
The Trump administration is “appropriating a public enterprise and making it into an agent of propaganda for a political regime,” one CDC scientist said in an interview as events unfolded. “It’s mind-boggling in the totality of ambition to so deeply undermine what’s so vitally important to the public.”
This is what I’m saying. They’re trashing the medical science during a pandemic for their own political (in the very lowest cheapest sleaziest sense) goals – they’re doing it because they want to retain their death-grip on power.
Not just power; money. They want to make sure Wall Street remains strong and they continue to rake in cash hand over fist, even though they already have more money than they could spend in many lifetimes. They don’t care that the people serving them may die; they assume they will not get sick, because prosperity gospel. God likes them because they are rich, that’s why they are rich, that’s proof that God likes them, so they will not get sick. Only lesser beings will get sick.
And Trump’s ridiculous antics around his own illness just make it worse. As far as I’m concerned, the man is a murderer.
These “officials” should go on trial. Including some of the CDC people who caved.
They could have resigned en masse, noisily, letting people know that the country no longer had a working smoke alarm. As it was, dangerous policies, written by know-nothing hacks intent on cheerleading rather than saving lives, were pushed through with the CDC’s apparent blessing. The country was on fire and the smoke alarm quietly cleared its throat.
Nice big show trials, with lots of witness impact statements. A message has to be sent that you don’t get to do shit like this and get away with it. Ever.
“History was full of the bones of good men who’d followed bad orders in the hope that they could soften the blow. Oh, yes, there were worse things they could do, but most of them began right where they started following bad orders.”
-Watch Commander Sir Samuel Vimes
iknklast, #1.
Proof that the checks and balances are working. The checks are flowing the right way to boost the Trump mob’s bank balances.
At least Scrooge McDuck went for swims in his money bin; these parasites just get happy because an electronic number goes up and never do anything with it.
@iknklast
#1
even though they already have more money than they could spend in many lifetimes.
I’m not sure that applies to Trump.
Colin, I would agree that may not apply to Trump. It does apply to many who are pushing his policies forward, promoting his campaign, and doing everything they can to elect him. And they manage to convince those who don’t have enough money for this month’s rent that this situation is good for them, too, because when they get rich (as they will if Trump is re-elected), they won’t have to give most of it to the government. Not that the rich in this country have ever given most of it to the government; even when our tax rates were high, there were enough loopholes to drive a truck through.