Vice-President Pence’s staff member tests positive for coronavirus

A senior official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN on Friday, “Trump’s concern is with the economy and that’s very clear.”

First, some background: CDC and White House officials told CNN the White House rejected a 17-page draft of CDC recommendations on the reopening of the country. During CNN’s coronavirus town hall on Thursday evening, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus response, denied reports that the CDC guidelines had been deliberately detained.

“We are still in the process of editing,” said Birx on Thursday evening. “Yesterday I just got the changes from the CDC. I’m working on it as soon as I get out of this discussion.”

“We are constantly working with the CDC and greatly appreciate their collaboration and, as you know, they have developed guidelines,” he added.

Here is how the CDC official reacted: Responding to Birx’s comments on Friday, a senior CDC official tells CNN that the focus on the agency right now is “to give everything state and local agencies need to protect people,” adding that the CDC has “already shared the basic principles of public health [from the draft] to protect people and keep them safe. “

“Our job is to support the state and the locals,” the senior official at CNN said.

“Our framework guide for mitigation is to match the public health response based on the level of disease. This was our original picture. This is what our draft has clarified,” added the official.

There is currently talk to the CDC about making decision trees in the document and “putting that guide on our website,” said the CDC official. Decision trees are “roadmaps,” the official said, so that state and local agencies know which public health approach to implement based on the level of dissemination.

“The real critical point was that states don’t pay attention to the phase, regardless of the number of cases. Look at Georgia, they didn’t meet any of the criteria. We understand that states want to open, but you still,” said the CDC official. .