Vice President Pence staff member tested positive for coronavirus

A senior official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN on Friday, “Trump’s concern is with the economy and that is very clear.”

First, some background: CDC and White House officials notify CNN of the White House rejected the draft 17-page CDC recommendation about reopening the country. During the CNN coronavirus town hall on Thursday night, Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus response, denied reports that guidelines from the CDC were intentionally withheld.

“We are still editing,” Birx said, Thursday night. “I just got my edits back from the CDC yesterday. I was working on it as soon as I left this discussion. “

“We continue to work with the CDC and really appreciate their partnership and, as you know, they make guidelines,” he added.

Here’s the reaction of the CDC official: Responding to Birx’s comments on Friday, a senior official with the CDC told CNN that the focus for the current agency was “providing everything needed by state and local institutions to protect people,” adding that the CDC “has shared basic public health principles [from the draft] to protect people and keep them safe. “

“Our task is to support the state and the local population,” the senior official told CNN.

“Our guideline framework for mitigation is, you match public health responses based on disease levels. That is our original framework. That is what makes our concept clear, “the official added.

Currently, there is talk at the CDC about making decision trees in the document and “placing the guide on our website,” said the CDC official. The decision tree is a “road map,” the official said, for state and local agencies to know what public health approaches should be applied based on the level of distribution.

“The real important point is that countries don’t pay attention to staging, regardless of the number of cases. Look at Georgia, they don’t meet any criteria. We understand countries want to open, but you still,” said the CDC official.