White House rebuffed CDC offer to lead contact tracing investigation of Trump team outbreak
The CDC repeatedly offered to lead investigations into Trump's coronavirus exposures, but the White House spurned the agency. Some say it's political.
amp.usatoday.com
The White House rejected on Monday an offer from the nation's public health experts to lead the effort to track down and notify Americans who were exposed to a growing coronavirus outbreak linked to President Donald Trump and several top aides.
Nine months into the most deadly pandemic in a century, the sidelining of the CDC in the investigation into an outbreak as prominent as a White House-linked cluster that has infected at least 18 mostly prominent Republicans underscores the agency's diminished influence.
The White House Medical Unit declined an offer of assistance from the CDC's leadership during a Monday morning phone call, according to multiple sources within the agency. CDC Director Robert Redfield has been offering the agency's help since Trump's diagnosis was disclosed on Friday.
CDC spokesman Tom Skinner confirmed that the White House has not accepted the CDC's offers to run the contact tracing but referred questions about the situation to the White House.