WATCH: After Kellyanne Conway Trashed Shelved CDC Coronavirus Guidelines, Dr. Birx Says They’re ‘In Editing’

Hours after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway dismissed the shelved Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reopening guidelines and said people should rely on the existing plan, Dr. Deborah Birx claimed that “no one has stopped” those guidelines, and they are still “in editing.”

Conway gaggled with reporters on Thursday, and was asked about reports that the White House has blocked a new 17-page set of detailed guidelines for reopening the country over business and church concerns, and she essentially confirmed the reporting.

Conway was asked “Could we just get your thoughts on how your processing this information from the CDC, are you going to continue to look at that, it has it been flatly rejected, or has it sent back to them for revisions?”

Conway began by noting that “we have put out so many CDC guidelines,” and after naming a few of them, said “it turns out Americans can follow instructions, good for us.”

“But the separate question about those, the CDC guideline report, all I’ll tell you about that is that we can’t be overly proscriptive about any one area,” she continued, confirming one key element of the reporting. “Childcare, daycare centers, restaurants and bars, places of worship.”

She went on to say that “there’s not a one size fits all policy for the whole country,” and said that “everybody should look at the April 16th three phases to reopening that we put out.”

Conway then boasted that governors were calling members of the task force individually to get their questions answered, and said that should continue. She made no mention of revisions or any future release of the guidelines.

But by Thursday evening’s CNN town hall, the story had changed. Host Anderson Cooper asked Dr. Birx about the guidelines, and she said they were “still in editing,” and claimed the issues with the document were “about simplification.”

COOPER: CNN is reporting that the Trump Administration will not implement the CDC’s 17-page draft recommendation for reopening America, according to a senior CDC official. The same official told CNN, quote, a team of people at the CDC spent innumerable hours in response to an ask from Debbie Birx, end quote.

Why are those guidelines not being used? And even the guidelines that you put out for the coronavirus task force for states, according to testimony, most of the states that are reopening have not actually met the criteria that you set out.

BIRX: So, thank you. There’s two questions there. One, we are in deep partnership with CDC, both for the White House guidelines that were put out on how to open up America again, but also the details behind the guidelines.

And we’re working with the CDC on a whole series of products, from how to improve community mitigation, what to do about contact tracing, how to improve surveillance, and certainly, these more detailed guidelines about childcare and camps.

Those are still being worked on. No one has stopped those guidelines. We’re still in editing. I just got my edits back from the CDC late yesterday. I’m working on them as soon as I get off of this discussion.

So, we are in constant work with the CDC and really value their partnership. And as you know, they put up guidelines quite often. They just did a meatpackers guideline. And so, I really want to appreciate how proactive they have been in working with the White House and really ensuring that the best science is put forward, both in our White House guidelines, but also in the guidelines that they post on the CDC website.

But crucially, Dr. Birx and Conway were consistent in that neither of them said that the guidelines will be released, let alone when. According to CDC officials, the guidelines were supposed to be published last Friday, and states are already reopening.

Watch the clip above via CNN.