Pence says CDC will revise school reopening guidelines after Trump complained they were too tough
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
It looks like President Trump got through to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not long after Trump both threatened to cut education funding should classrooms stay closed in the fall amid the coronavirus pandemic and criticized the CDC for issuing "impractical" guidelines for reopening schools, Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday the agency will revise its advice. "Well, the president said today, we just don't want the guidance to be too tough," Pence said. "That's the reason why next week, the CDC is going to be issuing a new set of tools, five different documents giving even more clarity on guidance going forward."
CDC Director Robert Redfield backed up the Trump administration's push for in-person instruction, explaining that the current guidelines were never meant to be "used as a rationale to keep schools closed" and that the agency always viewed reopening safely as the primary goal. Tim O'Donnell
Article continues belowThe Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
