US health department spokesman Michael Caputo and other officials asked for the right to read and suggest changes to weekly Covid-19 reports from the Centers for Disease Control, according to a Politico report.
Communications aides from the US Department of Health and Human Services complained to CDC Director Robert Redfield that the agency's reports would undermine President Donald Trump's upbeat messaging about the pandemic, according to the report, which cited emails and people familiar with the matter who weren't identified.
CDC employees initially pushed back against changes to the Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, a document meant to inform the medical community and general public about the status of the Covid-19 outbreak.
However, they have increasingly agreed to allow political appointees to review and amend the reports, Politico said.
Mr Caputo is a former 2016 Trump campaign official and Republican consultant who joined the HHS in April.
HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement on Saturday: “I have briefed President Trump alongside the nation’s top doctors, and I have insisted that he have direct access to these doctors throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. He has always been receptive to the data and science presented by me and other members of the taskforce.”
Accusations of malfeasance circulate
President Trump has come under criticism for intentionally downplaying the severity of the virus publicly. It has been revealed he told a journalist in early February he knew how dangerous it was but has defended this stance on the grounds of not wanting to cause panic or price spikes.
This tweet from February displays Mr Trump's Covid nonchalance:
The administration has also been criticised for what Democratic lawmakers called an attempt to sideline the CDC, typically the public face of the response to a health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.
“Alarmingly, as Covid-19 has spread,” Representatives Diana DeGette of Colorado and Frank Pallone of New Jersey wrote to the HHS in June, “CDC officials have reportedly stated that White House decisions — driven by politics instead of science — have constrained attempts to mount a coordinated response.”
The medical community has also raised concerns about the influence of Trump on the CDC.
For example, the President tweeted in June:
Recently, the CDC changed testing guidance to encourage people who may have been exposed but weren’t showing symptoms not to get tested.
