The Trump administration will not implement the Centers for Disease Control’s 17-page draft recommendation for the reopening of America, a senior CDC official confirmed to CNN.
What was in the document: The guide provided more detailed suggestions in addition to the reopening guidelines that the administration presented last month, including specific suggestions for schools and churches.
A senior CDC official confirmed to CNN that it was clear last night that the White House would not implement its 17-page draft recommendation to reopen America – after he asked for it.
“We are used to dealing with a White House that asks for things and that leads to chaos. A team of people at the CDC spent countless hours answering a question from Debbie Birx, “said the source, referring to White House coronavirus task force official Dr. Deborah Birx.” The 17-page report represents a request by the White House Task Force to elaborate these recommendations. This is our role. To put this guide together. “
A task force officer provided CNN with the following statement:
“On April 16, President Trump published guidelines for reopening America. These guidelines made clear that each state should open up safely and responsibly based on the data and response efforts in those individual states.
Another administrative official told CNN that the CDC leadership hadn’t seen the document before it leaked.
A senior administration official said that the draft document obtained by CNN last week has been the subject of heated internal debates over the past week, but in the end, task force members felt it was too specific and could not be useful as a national guide given the vast diversity of situations in each state.
The White House has also been the subject of intense lobbying efforts by some sectors that were trying to influence the guidelines, said the senior official.
At the White House briefing yesterday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany reiterated the White House initiative to allow the nation’s governors to implement their own guidelines.
“This is a governor-led effort. The president said that governors make decisions to move forward and we encourage them to follow our step-by-step approach,” said McEnany.
The CDC official told CNN that this is part of the ongoing friction between the U.S. health agency and the White House.
The CDC therefore decided to rotate and try to implement its recommendations at the state level through state agencies.
Part of the debate on the recommendation specifically concerned what was recommended to businesses.
“The CDC, the White House task force and the White House principles disagreed on how strongly a public health response should still be in place,” the official said.
According to the CDC official, the agency was informed by officials from the United States Department of Labor – all of whom are part of the government process – that, according to the guidelines proposed by the agency, some of the restrictions that should be imposed entities such as churches and businesses were too strict and businesses would have been vulnerable to legal liability if a worker contracted or died from Covid-19 in the workplace.
“In the absence of the law, it is a regulation and, in the absence of a regulation, they are recommendations. They think it is left too open to be interpreted by the courts if something happens in the workplace. It does not matter whether OSHA is playing football or not” , said the CDC source.
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