White House reportedly pushed CDC hard to fall in line on sending kids to school, sought alternate safety data

Trump shows a chart
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began working in early summer on guidance for sending children back to school, and the White House then "spent weeks trying to press public health professionals to fall in line with President Trump's election-year agenda of pushing to reopen schools and the economy as quickly as possible," The New York Times reported Monday night, citing documents and interviews with current and former government officials.

This "strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic" included searching for "alternate data" that suggested children were at little or no risk from the coronavirus, the Times reports, and trying to swap in guidance from a little-known Health and Human Services Department agency, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.