CDC Guidance Rolling Back Testing Requirements Was Announced Despite ‘Serious Objections’ From Agency, NYT Reports

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sparked confusion and outrage last month when it announced it was not necessary for people without symptoms of Covid-19 to be tested. The New York Times now reports that recommendation “was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections.”

The Times report, based on multiple sources and internal documents, points out that public health experts are calling for more testing to get a handle on the virus, not less. President Donald Trump has repeatedly complained that more testing drives up the number of reported cases.

The Times reports:

The guidance said it was not necessary to test people without symptoms of Covid-19 even if they had been exposed to the virus. It came at a time when public health experts were pushing for more testing rather than less, and administration officials told The Times that the document was a C.D.C. product and had been revised with input from the agency’s director, Dr. Robert Redfield.

But officials told The Times this week that the health department did the rewriting itself and then “dropped” it into the C.D.C.’s public website, flouting the agency’s strict scientific review process.

“That was a doc that came from the top down, from the H.H.S. and the task force,” said a federal official with knowledge of the matter, referring to the White House task force on the coronavirus. “That policy does not reflect what many people at the C.D.C. feel should be the policy.”

“H.H.S. and the White House writing scientifically inaccurate statements such as ‘don’t test all contacts’ on C.D.C.’s website is like someone vandalizing a national monument with graffiti,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, the CDC Director under the Obama administration, told the Times.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spoke out against the guidelines when questioned by Mediaite on August 26.

“The CDC guidelines that they had put forth are scary and dangerous,” Pelosi said. “It really is very sad and just reinforces the lack of attention and understanding that we have to have in order to crush this virus. Scientists tell us, and they have told us over and over again over the past months that we must be testing more. That we should be testing 3 million people a day. The administration has resisted that.”

She added that the House will be investigating the potential politicization of the CDC and the FDA.