EXCERPT:
DELAURO: "For us to keep our people safe, our response needs to be led by the scientists and the public health experts at CDC. Our response needs to be based on reliable public health principles, not political appointees in the White House. It is our expectation that public health expertise must be at the forefront of our national response. We need answers to vital questions. Why has the administration accepted the world’s worst outcome and a level of preventable death that would have been unconscienceable a few months ago? How is our country going to reopen when there is not a coordinated nationwide effort to test, contact trace, and isolate cases? Why are states disregarding CDC’s guidelines for reopening business and for social activities? Why are CDC’s guidelines not at the forefront? Why did CDC’s guidelines on reopening come after states started to reopen or were already reopened? We are asking the CDC to lead the way and uphold its mission. And I quote that mission, as a nation’s health protection agency CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish our mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats and responds when these arise. That is the highest mission and it is the right mission. So let me say affirmatively that this committee supports the scientists and the public health officials at the CDC.”