Trump cabinet castrati

[T]here were the times the CDC’s scientists were screened by a former purveyor of shoes and purses, Ivanka Trump, in addition to the White House’s undersecretary for lies, Kellyanne Conway.

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[P]olitical appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services repeatedly requested that the CDC “revise, delay, and even scuttle drafts” they thought might be viewed as somehow critical of Donald Trump.

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“Every time that the science clashed with the messaging, messaging won,” Mr. McGowan said.

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Episodes of meddling sometimes turned absurd, they said. In the spring, the CDC published an app that allowed Americans to screen themselves for symptoms of COVID-19. But the Trump administration decided to develop a similar tool with Apple. White House officials then demanded that the CDC wipe its app off its website, Mr. McGowan said. Ms. Campbell said that at the pandemic’s outset, she was confident the agency had the best scientists in the world at its disposal, “just like we had in the past.”



“What was so different, though, was the political involvement, not only from HHS but then the White House, ultimately, that in so many ways hampered what our scientists were able to do,” she said.

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Dr. [Nancy] Messonnier angered the White House in late February when she issued a public warning that the virus was about to change Americans’ lives. “There’s not a single thing that she said that didn’t come true,” Mr. McGowan said. “Is it more important to have her telling the world and the American public what to be prepared for, or is it just to say, ‘All is well?’”

  Vanity Fair

Maybe some others should have backed her up?

“It’s demoralizing to spend your entire career preparing for this moment, preparing for a pandemic like this. And then not be able to fully do your job,” McGowan told the Times. “They need to be allowed to lead…. Damage has been done to the CDC that will take years to undo.”

Yep.

Joe Biden’s presidency will not be perfect. People will still die. Politicians will still fuck up. Russia will probably still try to hack the federal government. One thing we can almost certainly look forward to, though, is that the leader of the free world’s idiot children will not be given senior roles at the White House, and they definitely won’t be empowered to try to overrule actual scientists in the middle of a pandemic as Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump apparently was.

Yep.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.