Pelosi accuses Trump of deliberately delaying CDC report on COVID-19 from reaching people

United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday accused US President Donald Trump of deliberately delaying Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) report on Coronavirus from reaching people. Taking to Twitter, she also alleged that the deadly delay and denial with the reports have made the situation in the country even worse. She demanded the truth behind blocking the life-saving guidance on Coronavirus to keep families safe.

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READ | Trump admin ignoring CDC guidelines to reopen United States amid COVID-19: Reports

The Trump administration on Thursday, May 7 was reported to have shelved the CDC guidelines on reopening the United States as the White House coronavirus taskforce headed by vice-president Mike Pence; found it's advice 'very restrictive'.

According to reports, the CDC had prepared a 17-page draft recommendation on 'Reopening America', which included guidelines on how businesses, schools, and other organisations should reopen in the months ahead but the White House has sent it back. Media reports suggest that the White House task force wanted each state to make their own decisions based on data and response efforts and has put the onus on governors.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday, May 7 announced the reopening of the country again and promised to 'rebuild the greatest economy anywhere in the world'.

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Decision to shelve detailed advice comes from White House: Reports

In the latest development, the decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by a media outlet. Soon after it was reported on Thursday that the guidance document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.

The trove of emails show the nation’s top public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spending weeks working on guidance to help the country deal with a public health emergency, only to see their work quashed by political appointees with little explanation.

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