Schumer Statement On Reports That The Trump White House Pressured The CDC To Downplay The Risks Posed To Students And Families By COVID-19 Pandemic

Brooklyn, N.Y. — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today released the following statement regarding reports that the Trump Administration pressured the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to minimize the virus threats to students and families from rushing to return to full in-person schooling:

“These reports of the Trump administration officials pressuring public health officials at the CDC to downplay the risk to our children and families in the rush to reopen schools are obscene. From the very beginning of this pandemic, Donald Trump has been more concerned about the threat COVID-19 posed to his political future than the threat to the American people. He even admitted ‘I wanted to always play it down.’ His depraved indifference to human life has America teetering on the edge as his appointees apply political pressure on public health officials to minimize the threat of the virus.

“I am calling on the HHS Inspector General to immediately open an investigation into reports that Trump political appointees interfered with the expert medical guidance of the CDC in order to downplay the risks of COVID-19 to school-age children and their families as well as to school teachers and other staff.” 

###