President Donald Trump’s administration shelved the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidelines advising state and local leaders on how to reopen the economy amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was slated to be released on May 1. In it, the CDC lays out detailed recommendations on safely reopening churches, schools, restaurants and other establishments that hold many people at once.
But according to the Associated Press, the administration told CDC scientists that the guide “would never see the light of day.”
An unnamed source told the AP that White House officials see such guidance as a “slippery slope” given that COVID-19 does not impact every area of the U.S. equally.
The report reveals yet another example of the administration’s lack of transparency in its response to the outbreak. President Donald Trump refuses to let members of his COVID-19 task force testify in front of Congress without permission from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.
Trump blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent official on the task force, from attending a House hearing scheduled for last week because the Democratic-controlled chamber is made up of “a bunch of Trump haters,” according to the President.
Read the CDC’s guide below:
