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Over 1000 current and former CDC staff hit out at Trump coronavirus response

Sunday, 18 October 2020 8:39 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 18 October 2020 11:05 AM ]

This file photo taken on April 23, 2020 shows a sign outside the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. (AFP photo)

Over 1,000 current and former staff members at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have criticized President Donald Trump over his administration’s handling of the coronavirus.

The members expressed their anger in a letter in which they also called for the CDC to play a bigger role in battling the pandemic, which has so far killed more than 218,000 people in the United States.

“The absence of national leadership on Covid-19 is unprecedented and dangerous,” read the letter signed by current and former disease investigators for the agency’s Epidemic Intelligence Service.

“CDC should be at the forefront of a successful response to this global public health emergency.”

Two former CDC directors, Jeffrey Koplan, who led the CDC under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and Tom Frieden, who served under Barack Obama, also signed the letter.

In the letter, published in the Epidemiology Monitor newsletter, they also expressed concern “about the ominous politicization and silencing of the nation’s health protection agency” during the pandemic.

The White House has been under criticism for interfering in the CDC’s role, with the Trump administration accused of editing official health guidance and altering language written by scientists.

“CDC has today, as it has every day during its 74-year history, provided the best available information and recommendations to the American public,” the agency said in response. “Since January, more than 5,200 CDC personnel have dedicated themselves to protecting the health of the American people.”

Trump health official apologizes for attack on CDC scientists

Michael R. Caputo, a top health official at the US administration, has apologized over his inflammatory comments about the scientists of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The letter comes as the US surpassed 9 million coronavirus cases this week as it entered the eight month of a pandemic.

About 70,000 infections were reported in the country only on Friday, marking its single highest confirmed daily case count since July.

“After a month of warning signs, this week’s data makes it clear: the third surge of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States is underway,” according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Hospital admissions and deaths are also trending upward with over 37,000 patients being admitted to hospital on Friday, the organization reported.

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