Report states Trump administration voluntarily sabotaged Covid response
Story highlights
Trump political appointees tried to pressure the Food and Drug Administration to authorise ineffective Covid treatments that the president was in favoured
A congressional report has recently revealed that the Trump administration made several attempts to sabotage the US' response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic. This was done for political purposes.
The report has been divided into three parts. The first part elaborates on how the Trump administration was responsible for a series of critical failures that undermined the US' ability to respond effectively to the pandemic.
The second part highlights the companies that profited during the pandemic while endangering public health. Lastly, the third part focuses on the administration's questionable management of the pandemic.
As per the report, the White House completely overruled public health and testing guidance coming from the nation’s top infectious disease experts.
In order to promote then-President Donald Trump's political agenda, several officials were silenced.
"Trump White House officials in the Office of Management and Budget sought to sidestep CDC when finalising coronavirus guidance for faith communities, after CDC declined to accept edits to the guidance proposed by officials outside of the agency," read the report.
Not only this but the report further states that Trump political appointees tried to pressure the Food and Drug Administration to authorise ineffective Covid treatments that the president was in favoured. This included hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma.
Also, the administration was involved in weakening the CDC's coronavirus testing guidance in August 2020. This was done to conceal the spreading pace of the cases.
A CDC official, in a transcribed interview, confirmed that she was instructed to destroy evidence of political interference by a Trump Administration political appointee. "The CDC official told the Select Subcommittee that she understood this instruction—which “seemed unusual” and made her “uncomfortable”—came from then-CDC Director Redfield," read the report.
Former senior Trump Administration officials have spoken in detail about a series of missteps that led to the "ineffectual early response to the coronavirus outbreak" in the US.
For instance, Dr Deborah Birx, the White House Covid response coordinator, revealed in a transcribed interview that nobody from the federal government had contacted the largest diagnostic companies operating in the US until she arrived in early March 2020.
(With inputs from agencies)