The New York Times recently published an article with the headline: “We were helpless.” It wasn’t news that the 45th president has muzzled The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) but there were new insights into the mood in the agency as their research and advice was ignored and silenced. The article is supported by interviews with 11 current and former agency employees, as well as a review of text messages and other documents. Which showed the agency under the thumb of the former president.
In February 2020, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a senior CDC official, warned Americans to prepare for a pandemic. When The former president learned of the announcement he was furious and severely reprimanded her. With her silenced the entire agency was put under political pressure to downplay the pandemic. Vice President Mike Pence, with no epidemiology experience was put in charge of the coronavirus task force. It was his job to silence and spin communications from the CDC.
CDC officers were sent to airports around the country to screen passengers flying into the United States from China. They were told however that they could not wear medical masks because the politicians did not want to alarm the general public. Passengers from China were wearing masks but the medical professionals were forced to go mask less. It soon became clear that the virus was spreading not just from people who showed visible symptoms, but also asymptotically. Just screening for visible symptoms was pointless. The public needed to be warned but the CDC was silenced.
Privately, CDC officers were calling friends and family asking them to cancel weddings and planned vacations, to stay home, and to wear masks and even goggles when they venturing outside. The general public was not told. Those who shared their thoughts on social media were told to stop or be fired.
A month later the CDC director finally announced the asymptomatic spread of the virus. Finally after two months, the white house begrudgingly advised the public to wear masks. Had the CDC been allowed to advise the public when they wanted, 36,000 lives could have been saved. Considering the ongoing mass hypnosis and denial that number is a drop in the bucket in the ever escalating preventable COVID death toll.
So is the CDC being muzzled in 2023? It would appear so.