CDC director: ‘We’re nowhere near the end’

WASHINGTON >> The head of the federal health agency contradicted President Donald Trump’s upbeat assessment of the coronavirus pandemic, saying “We’re nowhere near the end,” NBC News reported Monday.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whom Trump has rebuked for statements on the value of masks and vaccine availability, also expressed concern that Dr. Scott Atlas — a late addition to the coronavirus task force — is sharing inaccurate information with the president.

“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said in a Friday telephone call while on a plane from Atlanta to Washington, NBC reported. Redfield later told NBC that he was speaking about Atlas.

Redfield was conspicuously absent from a White House Rose Garden event Monday where Trump announced plans to ship 150 million rapid tests to U. S. states before asking Atlas, a neuroradiologist with no background in infectious diseases, to speak.

Atlas called expanded testing a “remarkable advance” but acknowledged that increased social mingling and testing had led to a rise in COVID-19 cases in parts of the country.

“Fear is not the issue here,” he said. “We really have a handle on what’s going on.”

In the phone call, Redfield also said the threat from the coronavirus pandemic was far from over, contradicting Trump’s assertion as he seeks reelection on Nov. 3 that the country was “rounding the corner.”

“We’re nowhere near the end,” Redfield said.

The number of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 is topping 25% in several states in the Midwest as cases and hospitalizations also surge in the region, according to a Reuters analysis. Health experts have expressed concern about a second wave of infections as the weather gets colder and people spend more time indoors.