The White House overrules health officials who wanted to advise that elderly and physically fragile Americans not fly.
NEW YORK — The White House overruled health officials who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, a federal official told The Associated Press.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention submitted the plan as a way of trying to control the virus, but White House officials ordered the air travel recommendation be removed, said the official who had direct knowledge of the plan. Trump administration officials have since suggested certain people should consider not traveling, but have stopped short of the stronger guidance sought by the CDC.
The person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity did not have authorization to talk about the matter. The person did not have direct knowledge about why the decision to kill the language was made or who made the call.
In a tweet, the press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence, Katie Miller, said that “it was never a recommendation to the Task Force” and called the AP story “complete fiction.” On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci — the head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force — said “no one overruled anybody.”
On Friday, the CDC updated its website to tell older adults and people with severe medical conditions such as heart, lung or kidney disease to “stay home as much as possible” and avoid crowds. It urges those people to “take actions to reduce your risk of exposure,” but it doesn’t specifically address flying.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Fauci said people with underlying conditions — particularly those who are elderly — should take steps to distance themselves from the risk of infection, including avoiding crowds and long plane trips “and above all don’t get on a cruise ship,” he said.
“No one has told us not to say that,” he added.
For most people, the flulike viral illness causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But — like the flu — it can cause pneumonia and be much more lethal to people made frail by old age and by conditions that make it harder for their bodies to fight infections.
Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, last week warned U.S. lawmakers against minimizing the virus’s risk for vulnerable people. During a Congressional hearing, he said the coronavirus “is like the angel of death for older individuals.”
Some experts said they’ve been hoping for clearer and louder guidance from the government, to prod vulnerable people to take every possible step to avoid settings where they might more easily become infected.
“The clear message to people who fit into those categories is; ‘You ought to become a semi-hermit. You’ve got to really get serious in your personal life about social distancing, and in particular avoiding crowds of any kind,’ ” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University expert on infectious diseases.
That can include not only avoiding essential commercial travel but also large church services and crowded restaurants, he added.