"4 Former CDC Heads Say Trump's Undermining Of Agency Puts Lives At Risk"

"Four former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blasted the Trump administration's 'repeated efforts to subvert' agency guidelines related to reopening schools, accusing the White House in a scathing Washington Post op-ed of undermining science with 'partisan potshots.'

Why it matters: Former directors Tom Frieden, Jeffrey Koplan and David Satcher and acting head Richard Besser served in parts of the Obama, Bush and Clinton administrations. They said they 'cannot recall over our collective tenure a single time when political pressure led to a change in the interpretation of scientific evidence.'

The backdrop: In his push to reopen schools this fall in order to help juice the economy, Trump last week criticized the CDC's guidelines as "very tough & expensive" and demanded that the agency issue new ones."

Fadel Allassan reports for Axios July 14, 2020.

SEE ALSO:

"Four Ex-CDC Directors Decry Trump Administration Effort To 'Cast Public Doubt' On Reopening Guidelines" (USA TODAY)

"We Ran The CDC. No President Ever Politicized Its Science The Way Trump Has." (Washington Post)