Trumpadministrationens politiska press och coronakrisens stora utmaningar har trasat sönder USA:s smittskyddsmyndighet CDC. Om Trump vinner valet befaras en massflykt från myndigheten. Man kan jämföra med en del liknande situationer inom och kring andra expertmyndigheter i USA sista åren, inte minst de som hanterar klimat/miljö-frågor och -forskning.
NBC News:
'Months of mixed messages, political pressure and public gaffes about Covid-19 have caused morale at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to turn "toxic," said four current and two former CDC staffers, one of whom said the election could be a "tipping point" for a mass exodus if President Donald Trump wins.
"The house is not only on fire," said a veteran CDC staffer who did not want to be named for fear of retribution. "We're standing in ashes."
Current and former CDC employees said that career staffers are still struggling to influence key decisions about the pandemic as new daily Covid-19 cases soar nationwide but that they are overruled by Trump appointees when politics intrudes. (...)'
https://www.nbcnews.com/.../toxic-cdc-staffers-say-morale...
ProPublica:
'(...) ProPublica obtained hundreds of emails and other internal government documents and interviewed more than 30 CDC employees, contractors and Trump administration officials who witnessed or were involved in key moments of the crisis. Although news organizations around the world have chronicled the CDC’s stumbles in real time, ProPublica’s reporting affords the most comprehensive inside look at the escalating tensions, paranoia and pained discussions that unfolded behind the walls of CDC’s Atlanta headquarters. And it sheds new light on the botched COVID-19 tests, the unprecedented political interference in public health policy, and the capitulations of some of the world’s top public health leaders.
Senior CDC staff describe waging battles that are as much about protecting science from the White House as protecting the public from COVID-19. It is a war that they have, more often than not, lost.
Employees spoke openly about their “hill to die on” — the political interference that would prompt them to leave. Yet again and again, they surrendered and did as they were told. It wasn’t just worries over paying mortgages or forfeiting the prestige of the job. Many feared that if they left and spoke out, the White House would stop consulting the CDC at all, and would push through even more dangerous policies.
To some veteran scientists, this acquiescence was the real sign that the CDC had lost its way. One scientist swore repeatedly in an interview and said, “The cowardice and the caving are disgusting to me.”
Collectively, the interviews and documents show an insular, rigorous agency colliding head-on with an administration desperate to preserve the impression that it had the pandemic under control. (...)'
https://www.propublica.org/art.../inside-the-fall-of-the-cdc
Det är sjukt sorgligt att administrationen är så kopiöst anti-vetenskaplig. Det känns som den orangea narcissisten sitter och killgissar hela tiden. Möjligen påhejjad av lobbyister som fyller hans fickor.