It’s not news that Donald Trump has sidelined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during the coronavirus pandemic, but let’s stop to think about just how problematic that is—and why it might be.
“This has never happened before. In the nearly 75 years that the CDC has existed, in every single infectious disease outbreak the country has dealt with, the CDC has been central. It's been at the decision table, and it's been at the podium,” former CDC director Tom Frieden told NPR. The upshot? “We are less safe because the CDC doesn't have the voice and the role it needs to have.”
Trump has included some public health experts in his ego-driven coronavirus briefings, to be sure. But Frieden and other experts agreed that National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci and Amb. Deborah Birx don’t make up for the absence of the CDC.
“Clearly, we have heard a lot from Tony Fauci. But I think we need to hear from more of them [CDC Director Robert Redfield and top officials Anne Schuchat and Nancy Messonnier]. And I think there needs to be more than just the briefing at the White House. That's important, but also I think the agencies themselves can do briefings,” said one George W. Bush-era Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson.
“Dr. Fauci is one of the world's greatest researchers. He has a fantastic career; he is a wonderful human being. He is able to navigate very complex scientific and political issues extremely well,” said Frieden. “But CDC is the country's public health agency. Fighting this pandemic without CDC central to that fight is like fighting it with one hand tied behind your back.”
So, why? Here are two possibilities, though there are certainly others: One is that Redfield may not be holding his own in the constant roiling internal scrum of the Trump administration, with Trump encouraging his subordinates to fight for his approval. The other is all about the polling. In a recent CBS News poll, 88% of Americans said they trusted medical professionals for coronavirus information, followed by 82% naming the CDC. Donald Trump was all the way down at 44%. Trump may tolerate the occasional gentle disagreement from experts like Fauci or Birx, but allowing that kind of platform for an institution with years of public trust behind it might make him a little nervous.
Whatever explains Trump’s sidelining of the CDC, though, it’s bad for a country facing a pandemic.