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Law360 (September 14, 2020, 10:19 PM EDT) -- House Democrats are investigating whether President Donald Trump's political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services interfered with reports about the coronavirus pandemic produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis asked HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield in a letter Monday to let them interview political appointees and career officials at both agencies to determine whether COVID-19 reports were tainted by politics.
"We are gravely concerned by reports showing that the President's political appointees at HHS have sought to help him downplay the risks of the coronavirus crisis by attempting to alter, delay, and block critical scientific reports from CDC," Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and other members of the Select Committee said in the letter.
According to the letter, based on media reports, Trump administration officials sought to alter contents of the CDC's epidemiological journal called the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report to downplay perceptions that the administration was slow to respond to the outbreak.
The committee members cited reports by Politco that HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo and senior advisor Paul Alexander, both Trump appointees, told CDC to change reports that presented evidence of how children are susceptible to COVID-19 and can spread it as easily as adults.
Political appointees at HHS also tried to alter scientific reports by career CDC scientists about using hydroxychloroquine to treat the novel coronavirus and disregarded evidence challenging its efficacy, according to the letter.
"During the pandemic, experts have relied on these reports to determine how the virus spreads and who is at greatest risk," the lawmakers wrote in the letter. "Yet HHS officials apparently viewed these scientific reports as opportunities for political manipulation."
The lawmakers want to interview Caputo, Alexander and five CDC officials including the agency's Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat within the next two weeks. They also asked the agencies to produce all communications between the HHS officials regarding the CDC reports.
HHS has recently faced scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers over its alleged misuse of government funds to mislead the public about the coronavirus pandemic. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is currently seeking information from the agency about whether it secured a $250 million contract for publicity consultants to distract from the administration's "failed response" to the virus.
HHS and CDC did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Monday's letter.
--Editing by Emily Kokoll.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
