House Panel: Trump Administration Deliberately Undermined U.S. Covid-19 Response

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A House panel investigating the United States’ COVID-19 response issued a staff report saying that the Trump administration deliberately undermined the country’s pandemic response.

The panel found that in weakening testing guidance and interfering with public health recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), championing “herd immunity,” failure to respond to supply shortages, blocking public officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci from speaking openly, and prioritizing and promoting lies about the 2020 election over the pandemic response, the Trump administration ultimately damaged the country’s ability to effectively control the pandemic from the start.

“Over the course of this year, the Select Subcommittee has continued and expanded on the critical work it began in 2020—rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal pandemic programs, promoting a robust and equitable coronavirus vaccination campaign, protecting American workers and their families, and exposing the historic failures of the prior Administration’s pandemic response that continue to hamper the nation’s ability to fully recover from this crisis,” said Chairman Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) Clyburn.

“As the nation continues progressing on a path toward ending this pandemic, the Select Subcommittee’s work remains essential to improving the ongoing response efforts and ensuring we are better prepared for future public health crises,” he added.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis “sent more than 100 letters, reviewed more than 430,000 pages of documents, conducted ten transcribed interviews of key officials involved in the pandemic response, published seven staff reports detailing its findings, and held 14 hearings and public briefings with senior Administration officials, experts in public health and economics, Americans personally impacted by the pandemic, and other important witnesses,” according to its press release.

You can read the full press release HERE, which will also allow you to view emails released today as well as excerpts from transcribed interviews with public health experts.