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Trump aides blocked accurate Covid information: US probe

Photo: Reuters

AFP

Former US president Donald Trump’s administration prevented health officials from providing accurate information about Covid-19 in a bid to back up his overly optimistic view of the outbreak, according to a congressional report released Monday.

Senior staff at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told investigators Trump aides bullied staff and tried to rewrite their reports in a bid to align guidance with the president’s public downplaying of the crisis.

Officials took “unprecedented steps to insert political appointees into the publication process and rebut CDC’s scientific reports, including drafting op-eds and other public messaging designed to directly counteract CDC’s findings,” the report said.

Investigators interviewed a dozen current and former CDC officials as well as senior administration figures for the 91-page document released by the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis.

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The panel describes how Trump appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tried to take over the CDC’s weekly scientific journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), editing or blocking articles they believed might prove harmful to Trump.

Trump appointees had sought to “alter the contents, rebut, or delay the release” of 18 MMWRs and a health alert, succeeding on at least five occasions.

The report quoted a CDC communications officer who complained that a Trump ally in HHS had used “bully-ish behavior” that made CDC officials “feel threatened.”

Jay Butler, the CDC’s deputy director of infectious diseases, said he was “not really asked back to do telebriefings” after his statements were deemed “too alarming.”

“The Select Subcommittee’s investigation has shown that the previous administration engaged in an unprecedented campaign of political interference in the federal government’s pandemic response, which undermined public health to benefit the former president’s political goals,” panel chairman Jim Clyburn, a Democrat, said in a statement. 

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“As today’s report shows, President Trump and his top aides repeatedly attacked CDC scientists, compromised the agency’s public health guidance, and suppressed scientific reports in an effort to downplay the seriousness of the coronavirus.”

A previous report outlined the Trump administration’s bid to block government health officials from speaking publicly about the pandemic.

And another described its pressure on the US Food and Drug Administration to reissue emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug Trump was promoting despite its ineffectiveness in treating Covid-19.

Republicans dismissed the latest report as partisan and have vowed to conduct their own inquiry if they win back the House or the Senate in November’s midterm elections. 

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International

Shark attack kills 40-year-old fisherman in Great Barrier Reef waters

A shark attacked and killed a 40-year-old man who was fishing with his family in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, authorities reported.

The predator struck on Saturday afternoon near Humpy Island, on the east coast of the country, according to emergency services.

“The man was fishing with family members when he was bitten by a shark,” said the Queensland state police in a statement.

He suffered “injuries that put his life at risk” and died an hour and a half later, the police added.

A spokesperson for the Queensland ambulance service told AFP on Sunday that the victim had suffered a “significant” neck wound.

Humpy Island is known for its camping site, with access to reefs for diving and snorkeling.

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International

Machado appeals to venezuelan military and police to join the change for freedom

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado expressed on Saturday that she is confident the military and police are “one step away from doing the right thing,” in light of the “will for change” expressed in the elections five months ago, referring to the contested victory of Edmundo González Urrutia, despite the fact that President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner.

“Military citizens, police citizens, this message is for you. The time for decision has come, and it is time to tear down the last obstacle that separates us from freedom. Venezuela trusts you. I trust in the moral reserve of our men of honor and arms. See you soon in the streets,” wrote the former congresswoman on X.

In an audio posted on this social media platform, Machado addressed the members of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) and police forces, saying the people “are united in one voice” and that “everyone, deep down, has made the right decision and is just waiting for the collective resolution to act.”

In this context, the opposition leader urged the military and police to ask themselves “if silence” does not make them “accomplices of the current tyranny,” and “if undue obedience” does not “place them at the service of a handful of criminals.”

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International

U.S. health authorities report mutation of avian flu virus in Louisiana patient

Chile detects first outbreak of avian flu in poultry; shipments closed: minister

The avian flu virus mutated inside the first seriously ill patient in the United States, according to the country’s health authorities. However, they assured that, so far, no person-to-person transmission of the virus has been identified in this patient, who is hospitalized in Louisiana.

Scientists warned that while it is concerning because mutations could make the virus potentially more transmissible between humans, they would be alarming if found in animal hosts or in the early stages of infection or symptom onset, which would facilitate the spread to close contacts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have identified at least 65 human cases of avian flu in the United States, with more than half (36) reported in California, including the country’s first child infected with this virus.

CDC analysis of the Louisiana patient identified mutations in the hemagglutinin gene, which were not found in the samples from infected poultry at the source of the outbreak. This suggests that the changes emerged as the virus replicated in the seriously ill patient.

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