Following Reports of White House Interference, Clyburn Calls on CDC to Fix ‘Misleading and Contradictory’ School Guidance

Washingon, D.C. (September 30, 2020)—Today, Rep. James E. Clyburn, Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, calling on the Administration to immediately revise CDC guidance on reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic to accurately reflect the science. This letter follows reporting that top White House and HHS officials intervened in CDC's work to play down the risk of sending children back to school.

"I am alarmed that CDC—the world's preeminent public health agency—has issued guidance that misstates the science, is internally inconsistent, and could put children, teachers, and their families at greater risk of infection and death from the coronavirus," the Chairman wrote. "Rather than reflecting sound science, new reports show that CDC's misleading guidance was the product of intense political pressure from the President and political appointees at the White House and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As the Trump Administration has urged all schools to quickly reopen for in-person learning regardless of the risks, cases are rising across much of the country, and tens of thousands of students and teachers have been infected. I write today to urge you to immediately revise CDC's guidance so that it faithfully reflects the science—rather than the partisan political interests of the President."

Current CDC guidance downplays the risks that children can be infected with and transmit the coronavirus, asserting, "Children appear to be at lower risk for contracting COVID-19 compared to adults" and "transmission among children in schools may be low."

However, data shows that more than 624,000 American children have been infected with the coronavirus, including nearly 75,000 who tested positive in the first two weeks of September, when many schools were reopening. At a Select Subcommittee hearing last month, epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Rivers testified that "it is becoming increasingly clear that children are able to spread the virus," and that "children are infected at rates similar to adults."

"Growing evidence shows that CDC's misleading guidance on children and the coronavirus is the result of a months-long pattern of interference by political appointees in the Trump Administration," the letter continued.

A new report this week shows that in July 2020, White House officials overruled CDC scientists, and insisted on adding inaccurate language to CDC guidance downplaying the risks of reopening schools. Top White House advisors, including Mark Meadows, Jared Kushner, Larry Kudlow, and Stephen Miller, were given the opportunity to weigh in. The report also shows that the Vice President's chief of staff sought charts and reports from CDC showing a decline in coronavirus cases in young people and minimizing the risk of infection and death.

These incidents were part of a pattern. For example, in May 2020, the White House reportedly blocked publication of CDC's public health guidance on reopening schools because senior officials believed the guidance was "overly prescriptive." In August 2020, a senior political appointee at HHS demanded that CDC retract studies on the impact of the coronavirus on children because he believed they made the President's push to reopen schools more difficult.

On September 21, the Government Accountability Office concluded that White House statements urging schools to "fully open" or face threats of withheld funds "do not appear to align with a risk-based decision-making approach," and recommended that "CDC ensure that, as it makes updates to its guidance related to schools' operating status, the guidance is cogent, clear and internally consistent."

Today's letter concluded: "The White House and HHS must cease applying inappropriate political pressure on CDC so the American people can trust they are receiving accurate, unbiased health information during the pandemic. CDC should urgently replace its misleading and contradictory guidance on the impact of the coronavirus on children with new guidance that follows the best available science."

The letter also requested a staff briefing by October 7, 2020, and documents and information by October 14, 2020.

Click here to read today's letter to Vice President Pence, Secretary Azar and Dr. Redfield.

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