US House Of Representatives Finds Evidence Of Donald Trump Administration Meddling With COVID-19 Weekly Report Data

Mantan Presiden AS Donald Trump, (Wikimedia Commons/The White House)

JAKARTA - The United States House of Representatives (US) elected committee, led by the Democratic Party, announced that it had found evidence of political interference by the Donald Trump administration regarding the handling of the corona virus.

The interference is said to have affected the federal government's handling of the coronavirus in 2020, including efforts to alter or block data reports from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) detailing the dire effects of the virus.

Citing CNN Tuesday July 27, a new document released yesterday details the pressure career officials face from the Donald Trump administration's political office, to amend the section of the CDC's key Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), which outlines deaths, hospitalizations, and COVID-19 infections. -19 during the pandemic.

The new document also corroborates testimony given last year from a career CDC official who said he was ordered to destroy evidence of the request, according to the committee.

The House Elections Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis is now requesting interviews with nearly a dozen former and current Trump political officials, sending letters Tuesday to individuals and the CDC, as well as the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

President Joe Biden inspects a COVID-19 vaccination center. (Wikimedia Commons/Official White House Photo)

Among those previously asked to be interviewed by the committee was HHS senior adviser Paul Alexander, a Trump political official who demanded in an Aug. 8, 2020 email, the CDC immediately stop the MMWR series or adjust two reports of COVID-19 infections.

The first relates to data on cases of infection in a camp in Georgia, and one relates to data on children hospitalized for COVID-19. Alexander also accused the CDC of "writing hit pieces" on the Trump administration, according to an August 2020 email.

The panel had previously released internal emails showing Alexander bragging about influencing the CDC's scientific reports, repeatedly urging his colleagues at HHS and the CDC to pursue so-called herd immunity strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apart, Dr. Christine Casey of the CDC, who fills in as editor-in-chief of MMWR, wrote to then CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield and others the next morning on how to 'discuss next steps' regarding Alexander's email, according to an email the subcommittee released Tuesday.

In December, Dr. Charlotte Kent, editor-in-chief of the MMWR series, has notified subcommittee staff she was ordered to delete the email, instructions she understands to be from Redfield.

Meanwhile, Redfield himself in a statement at the time said he had instructed the CDC to ignore Alexander's comments.

Not only them, former CDC political officer Kyle McGowan, Amanda Campbell and Nina Witkofsky, a senior adviser and former CDC chief of staff, were among the recipients of the Aug. 9 email.

Illustration of a COVID-19 test by the US military. (Wikimedia Commons/Navy Medicine)

McGowan and Campbell resigned in August from their roles as CDC chief of staff and deputy chief of staff. After their departure, the two spoke openly about the political interference they witnessed during their time with the CDC.

To support the investigation, the Subcommittee requested interviews and documents from 11 current and former officials in late August and early September. CNN has reached out to people interviewed by the panel, HHS, and the CDC for comment. An HHS spokesperson told CNN they "will review the request and respond directly to the committee."

The committee is also seeking further information about the Donald Trump administration's deliberations on its herd immunity strategy, its data collection practices, and any 'adverse' employment actions against federal officials.

"Our public health institutions must no longer be compromised by decision makers who are more concerned with politics than keeping Americans safe," Democratic committee chair James Clyburn, along with other Democratic committee members, said in a statement.

"It is therefore imperative that the Elected Subcommittee's investigation of the Administration's previous response to the pandemic provides a full account of what happened."

To note, the committee also updated its collection of nearly 90 samples based on media reports and its investigation, in which it found allegations that Donald Trump administration officials injected 'politics' into public health decisions from February to December 2020.