CDC to issue new school COVID guidelines after Trump funding threat as President & Fauci are both absent from task force
THE Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will revise its guidelines for reopening schools hours after President Donald Trump bashed them as “impractical”.
Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday the CDC will issue its updated recommendations next week because the Trump administration doesn’t want the guidance to stop schools from reopening.
The CDC will revise its guidelines for school reopenings hours after President Donald Trump criticized them on Twitter[/caption]
The president was notably absent from Wednesday’s coronavirus task force briefing[/caption]
“Well, the president said today, we just don’t want the guidance to be too tough,” the vice president told reporters at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House.
“That’s the reason why next week, the CDC is going to be issuing a new set of tools, five different documents that will be giving even more clarity on the guidance going forward.”
Neither the president nor task force leader Dr Anthony Fauci was present at Wednesday’s briefing.
Hours before, Trump openly scoffed at the CDC’s “tough” reopening rules on Twitter and said he’ll meet with the agency.
“I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools,” he tweeted on Wednesday morning.
“While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!”
Dr Anthony Fauci, who has said the US is ‘knee-deep’ in coronavirus cases was also absent from the briefing[/caption]
Vice President Mike Pence said the revisions will be made because the Trump administration doesn’t want them to stop schools from reopening[/caption]
CDC Director Robert Redfield denied any friction between his agency and Trump to reporters after the press briefing, saying he and Trump are “aligned” on next steps for reopening.
But when asked why the president lashed out on Twitter, Redford was mum and “sort of shrugged”.
The president also threatened to cut off federal funding to school districts that don’t reopen for classroom learning in the fall.
Although 90 percent of school district budgets come from local property and sales taxes, the Education Department can withhold emergency coronavirus relief money that would go towards funding staff, programs, and the CDC’s public health measures, according to the New York Times.
As Trump continues to wage war against the CDC, the US hit a grim milestone of more than three million confirmed coronavirus cases.
CDC Director Robert Redfield claimed he and Trump are ‘aligned’ on the agency’s next steps[/caption]
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Dr Deborah Birx urged residents in “red zone” states experiencing COVID-19 spikes to wear masks and avoid going to bars and indoor gatherings or eating at restaurants indoors.
Moments after her warning, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos asserted that reopening isn’t a question of if, but how.
“It’s not a matter of if schools reopen. It’s simply a matter of how,” DeVos said.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said despite health experts’ warnings, schools will reopen in the fall[/caption]