Marginalised experts fight virus fictions
After months of being sidelined or attacked by President Donald Trump, a growing number of US government scientists and physicians are pushing back against his political agenda when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Food and Drug Administration issued beefed-up safety standards for a vaccine in September, making the president’s push for a vaccine before election day all but impossible.
After initially acquiescing to the White House, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reversed controversial guidelines that had called for less testing for individuals exposed to the virus who showed no symptoms.
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator who no longer sees Trump regularly, is travelling the country urging state and local officials to adopt mask mandates, close bars, and restrict large gatherings – measures contradicting Trump’s contention that the virus has been defeated and people should return to their normal daily lives.
The officials have been emboldened by a worsening pandemic, a directionless White House, and growing indications that Trump’s first term may be his last, say several administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
They said many of the administration’s top doctors – including Birx, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Surgeon-General Jerome M Adams – were beside themselves over the growing influence of presidential adviser Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist with no infectious disease experience whose disputed views about herd immunity have gained currency with Trump.
Birx has argued fiercely with Atlas in White House coronavirus task force meetings, according to two people familiar with the situation.
With the election just days away, scientists and agency heads are also focused on trying to preserve the integrity of their agencies – and, in some cases, burnishing their tarnished reputations for a post-Trump era, say agency insiders and outside experts.
Many of the people overseeing the pandemic response are expected to change even if Trump wins re-election. CDC director Robert Redfield is likely to leave or be asked to resign, no matter the result, according to several senior administration officials.
Rumours are also rife that FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn may be asked to leave or quit, and the future of their direct boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, remains uncertain.
Some senior career scientists
are also considering quitting Trump is re-elected.
Some public health officials say the changes have been too little, too late – and fall far short of repairing the erosion of public trust caused by a White House that has devalued scientific expertise.
Much of the focus has been on Hahn and Redfield, both of whom Trump has excoriated on Twitter and in public briefings. For months, they have faced pressure not only from him and top White House aides, but also from Azar, who has blamed them for numerous missteps in the response.
Critics of Hahn and Redfield say they made mistakes handling the pandemic and gave in to White House pressure, angering career scientists and outside experts. Their lack of experience also was a problem.
Within the CDC, much of the pushback has come from career
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scientists fed up with the White House’s repeated blocking or watering down of guidelines that tell the public how to minimise the risk of getting sick.
Last week the CDC also took another step at odds with the White House agenda, expanding the number of people at risk of contracting the coronavirus by changing the definition of who is a ‘‘ close contact’’ of an infected individual. The move could make it more difficult for schools and workplaces to reopen, a top Trump priority.
Career staff describe being frustrated about the time they have spent responding to data requests from the White House and others to demonstrate that the US is doing better than other countries – and then having to refute the White House’s misinterpretations of that data, according to one official.
When staff have pushed back,
saying the data comparisons don’t show US superiority, they have been asked to redo them.
Hahn was criticised after the FDA granted, then revoked, emergency clearance for hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted as a ‘‘game changer’’ by Trump but later found to be ineffective and potentially dangerous for Covid-19 patients.
In August, he was roundly denounced by outside experts after he sharply exaggerated the benefits of convalescent plasma at a White House news conference to announce the FDA’s authorisation of the treatment. Shocked by the criticism, Hahn apologised.
FDA career officials have also stepped up to insist on an independent vaccine process, worried that the politicisation of the issue could drive down public acceptance of the eventual vaccine.