How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
"I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do” -- Dr Jay Butler, CDC.
This story is so sad, so absolutely infuriating.
One of the most consequential stories of this awful year has been the collapse of the CDC. Now, after months of work and based on more than 30 insider interviews and hundreds of emails, here from @propublica is the inside story of how it happened.
I hope whatever truth and reconciliation commission is formed after the pandemic grill Steven Miller and Robert Redfield for 11 hours straight about this act of utter depravity. propublica.org/article/inside…pic.twitter.com/BPzZNDZtsN
If you're going to read one story about what happened inside the @CDCgov, make it this one. It will depress you, anger you and leave you shaking your head. Inside the Fall of the CDC
You gotta read a bit to get there, but whooboy wait until you get to the part where the CDC chief of staff quits after having to devote his efforts in the middle of a pandemic to bringing someone's dog into US. propublica.org/article/inside…pic.twitter.com/jewAxDpLoA
The story of the CDC can be summed up in this devastating quote: “I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do."
“In 2020, time and again, the crumpled paper hurled into the corner was the work of the scientists.”
This story. As a reader, I was riveted. As a reporter, I am in awe (and v v jealous). A must read.
New: How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
over the last day we've gotten not one but two deep investigations into how the CDC has been hamstrung during COVID.
tons of scoops in this @propublica piece, including the story of how the White House interfered with its guidance for churches:
propublica.org/article/inside…pic.twitter.com/KPgXBz4ZJB
This from @propublica is a painful but necessary read to prevent future health catastrophes. Question for Biden, Congress: How do we fix the agency to stop future WH interference, or establish independence from future anti-science disinformation assaults?
How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus.
“When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment”
History is being written & it does not look good for this Administration.
"Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost."
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment."
Many CDC employees feared that if they left the agency and spoke out about Trump's interference, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all.
That government experts had to tiptoe around Trump's feelings cost lives.
This story is so infuriating & so incredibly tragic:
“Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.”
Top CDC official to colleagues in May: “I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do." WOW.
Inside the Fall of the CDC
READ
"With >216,000 people dead this year, most Americans know the low points of the current chapter already. A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of pub hlth has, w/breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn & even pity."
We need all of us to act, together, to get this pandemic under control.
But we also need public health leadership. The CDC - muzzled during this pandemic - needs to be out front, communicating with the American people.
Partisanship doesn't end outbreaks.
Each new round of reporting on the marginalization and knee-capping of CDC during the pandemic is more depressing than the last.
Here, a deep dive from ProPublica on how the White House made CDC "into an agent of propaganda for a political regime"
Very good piece by @propublica about the mistakes made by the CDC and the corruption of the institution by the Trump Administration. propublica.org/article/inside… For another look at this, see "Totally Under Control." @undercontrolmov
“When it mattered the most, they shut us up,” a senior CDC official said. “The threat is clear. If we want to ever be able to talk tomorrow or next week or next month — or whatever is being dangled in front of us, you stay inside the lines.”
This piece is a must read. The CDC was clearly bullied by political apparatchiks from the White House, and that is unacceptable.
But that is not the only lesson here...
What a sad story & a cautionary tale. I know so many outstanding scientists at CDC. If they had been allowed to lead, they would have done an amazing job during this crisis.
When Obama's enforcer @RahmEmanuel tried to rewrite a CDC school closure plan, acting director @DrRichBesser spoke up. Emanuel backed down. That's how the interplay between politics and science should work. Things are a little different today.
I have had the privilege of working for @CDCgov and hold the public health professionals & scientists there in the highest regard.
We risk a permanent "bankruptcy of trust" if we continue down this path.
We must protect the integrity of the science.
Two of the deepest dives, among others I've seen, into how the Trump regime destroyed the credibility of the CDC: propublica.org/article/inside… and sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/i…
This was a story on which journalism orgs should have collaborated. Instead, vast duplication of effort.
This is an interesting and - for the WH - devastating read from @propublica.
propublica.org/article/inside…
I'm surprised about this 👇 though. There is *no* question that faulty primer design was the (main) reason for false positives (at a rate of ~3-5%). pic.twitter.com/GG09oE1HUR
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment..."
Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told.
Essential reading.
"A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of public health has, with breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn and even pity."
"When the next history of the CDC is written, 2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in its 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment"
A devastating story on political interference with @CDCgov as it tried to use good #science to guide a #COVID19 response that would build #trust among the American people unified in fighting the virus. We got the opposite.
'To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”'
Inside the Fall of the CDC
"Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told."
This is from an amazing ProPublica piece about the CDC
propublica.org/article/inside…
It seems to me that this is the same recommendation as in Switzerland: do not test after contact with a covid-positive person if no symptoms pic.twitter.com/cxtdZHoetq
Inside the Fall of the CDC: How the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by a virus, president Trump and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus. via @propublica
Martin Cetron, CDC’s veteran director of global migration & quarantine, coined a phrase years ago for what can happen when people lose confidence in the government and denial & falsehoods spread faster than disease. He called it the “bankruptcy of trust.”
“Today, some CDC veterans worry that it could take a generation or longer to regain that trust.”
Rehabbing the CDC will be critical to taking down #COVID—and preventing the next one.
I’ll believe that Trump is growing into the presidency when his staff stops talking about him like a toddler. propublica.org/article/inside…
[This is the 1938th tweet in the #ToddlerinChief thread.] pic.twitter.com/Hkwn9F99DY
Thank you,career #scientists of @CDCgov. “Senior @CDCgov staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting #science from the White House as protecting the public from #COVID19. It’s a war that they’ve, more often than not, lost”
Inside the Fall of the #CDC:
How the world’s greatest #publichealth organization was brought to its knees by a virus, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders, causing damage that could last much longer than the coronavirus...propublica.org/article/inside… by @ProPublica
This is must-read journalism from @propublica if you want to understand how America lost the most important battle in the Trump administration’s war on science in the middle of a #pandemic
"“I am very troubled on this Sunday morning that there will be people who will get sick and perhaps die because of what we were forced to do,” he wrote."
I remember laughing loudly when @VP Pence said in his debate that the Trump admin "follows the science." I don't think it was intended as a joke, but it's a dark one. They don't follow the science; they politicize it, and kill Americans in the process
New: "@ProPublica obtained hundreds of emails & other internal government documents & interviewed more than 30 @CDCgov employees, contractors and Trump administration officials who witnessed or were involved in key moments of the crisis." propublica.org/article/inside… #phealth #covid19
“2020 will emerge as perhaps the darkest chapter in [the CDC’s] 74 years, rivaled only by its involvement in the infamous Tuskegee experiment, in which federal doctors withheld medicine from poor Black men with syphilis, then tracked their descent...”
How the world’s greatest public hlth organization @CDCgov was brought to its knees by the #coronavirus, the US president and the capitulatn of its own leaders, causing damage that cud last much longer than the virus propublica.org/article/inside… via @jamesBandler et al & @propublica
The assault on science at the CDC: "In 2020, time and again, the crumpled paper hurled into the corner was the work of the scientists." Outstanding work as always from @propublica
Plenty of expert groups have released comprehensive plans on what works. The government’s own experts at CDC would normally have played a prominent role in developing a national strategy, but of course have been stifled and marginalized and all along
"Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost."
"A vaunted agency that was once the global gold standard of public health has, with breathtaking speed, become a target of anger, scorn and even pity." Inside the Decline and Fall of the CDC . Excellent @jamesBandler
“Most of us who saw this could be retired or dead by the time that’s fully fixed”
Disquieting look inside the corrosion of the CDC. Certainly never perfect, but politics & its own disorganisation may have destroyed an epi institution with global reach
buff.ly/352A26ppic.twitter.com/NZ8dHry1YW