美国众议院议员詹姆斯·克莱本（DS.C.）说，他的冠状病毒小组委员会调查人员发现了疾病控制和预防中心向“欺负”专业人员进行“政治压力运动”的证据，这可能是试图“削弱美国的疾病”。冠状病毒的反应是在为实现畜群免疫而进行的误导中。”
牛群免疫是一种理论的简写-一种被大多数公共卫生专家所拒绝的理论-可以通过允许年轻人感染并发展自然免疫直到疫苗被广泛使用来最好地保护社会。
克莱伯（Clyburn）指责卫生和公共服务部长亚历克斯·阿扎尔（Alex Azar）和疾病预防控制中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德（Robert Redfield）阻碍调查，他发出传票，迫使他们在12月30日之前交出大量文件和电子邮件。
HHS在一份声明中回应说，没有政治干预，并补充说：“虽然政府专注于接种疫苗，但小组委员会只关注廉价疫苗，以制造头条新闻并误导美国人民。”
该委员会的主要调查结果在给阿扎尔和雷德菲尔德的20页信中作了详细介绍，该信集中于今年早些时候在HHS的两名政治任命人员的行动。在白宫官员与阿扎尔人之间高度紧张的时期，纽约政治执行官和特朗普的忠实拥护者迈克尔·卡普托被任命为该部门的最高发言人。卡普托带来了健康研究员保罗·亚历山大（Paul Alexander）为顾问。此后两人都离开了该机构。
这封信称，但是几个月以来，他们在CDC名为“发病率和死亡率每周报告”（MMWR）的出版物中发起了封锁或更改有关COVID-19大流行的文章的运动，公共卫生界密切关注。
随着亚历山大解雇内部电子邮件，调查人员说竞选活动：
—试图阻止或更改超过12篇MMWR文章，有时成功地改变了草稿语言，有时由于内部争论的激烈而推迟了出版。
—激烈挑战的文章详细介绍了COVID-19在儿童中传播的科学发现。这是在唐纳德·特朗普总统坚决敦促在秋天恢复亲身教育的时候发生的。这些报告包括有关夏令营爆发的报告，儿童住院率的数据，以及有关称为“多发性炎症综合症”的危险状况的调查结果，这种疾病折磨了一些因冠状病毒而生病的儿童。
-攻击了一份MMWR文章草稿，该文章显示了对羟氯喹的处方的增加，羟氯喹是特朗普最初作为“游戏规则改变者”所接受的抗疟疾药物，只是最终了解到它弊大于利。HHS甚至起草了一份反驳CDC文章的专栏文章，尽管该文章从未发表过。被捕者指责MMWR作者试图抢占头条新闻，称他们为“对公共服务的耻辱”。
尽管一些HHS职业官员显然试图通过改变MMWR文章的措辞或标题来化解Alexander的批评，但至少有一个面临压力策略。
职业发展高级发言人比尔·霍尔（Bill Hall）写信给卡普托（Caputo）和亚历山大（Alexander）解释说，疾病预防控制中心（CDC）的出版物类似于经过同行评审的科学期刊，并且HHS一直尊重其独立性。霍尔写道，卡普托曾经领导的HHS公共事务办公室“不是科学或医学计划办公室。作为一项长期政策，我们不参与清理科学文章，因为竞技场需要保持独立进程。 ”
HHS声明说，亚历山大的电子邮件“绝对没有影响部门的政策或战略。”
克莱本（Clyburn）解释说，他之所以发出传票，部分原因是他的调查发现了证据，表明有人试图破坏记录。国会对材料的要求为任何试图销毁或隐藏材料的人增加了法律利益。
疾病预防控制中心科学出版物的负责人夏洛特·肯特博士先前告诉委员会调查员，她被勒令删除亚历山大的一封电子邮件，攻击一封有关儿童中冠状病毒传播的MMWR文章。肯特说她相信订单来自雷德菲尔德。它通过另一位官员传给了她。
雷德菲尔德当时的回应是，他已告知CDC员工不要理会亚历山大的电子邮件，并且他完全致力于维护MMWR健康报告的独立性。
HHS周一表示，肯特的电子邮件“从未删除-已存档”。
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said his coronavirus subcommittee investigators have found evidence of a “political pressure campaign” to “bully” professionals at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in what may have been an attempt to “cripple the nation's coronavirus response in a misguided effort to achieve herd immunity.”
Herd immunity is shorthand for a theory — rejected by most public health experts — that society can be best protected by allowing younger people to get infected and develop natural immunity until vaccines are widely available.
Accusing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield of stonewalling his investigation, Clyburn issued subpoenas to compel them to turn over reams of documents and emails by Dec. 30.
In a statement, HHS responded that there was no political interference, adding: "While the administration is focused on vaccination shots, the subcommittee is focused on cheap shots to create headlines and mislead the American people.”
The committee's topline findings were detailed in a 20-page letter to Azar and Redfield that centered on the actions of two political appointees earlier this year at HHS. New York political operative and Trump loyalist Michael Caputo was installed as the department's top spokesman during a period of high tension between White House officials and Azar. Caputo brought health researcher Paul Alexander with him as an adviser. Both men have since left the agency.
But for months, the letter alleges, they waged a campaign to block or change articles on the COVID-19 pandemic in a CDC publication called the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, which is closely followed by the public health community.
With Alexander firing off internal emails, investigators said the campaign:
— Sought to block or change more than a dozen MMWR articles, sometimes succeeding in getting changes to draft language and at other times delaying publication as internal arguments raged.
— Intensely challenged articles that detailed scientific findings on the spread of COVID-19 among children. This came during a time when President Donald Trump was adamantly urging a return to in-person schooling in the fall. Those included reports about outbreaks in summer camps, data on hospitalization rates among children, and findings about a dangerous condition called “multi-inflammatory syndrome,” which afflicts some children who get sick from the coronavirus.
—— Attacked a draft MMWR article showing a jump in prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that Trump embraced early on as a “game changer” only to ultimately learn it could do more harm than good. HHS even went so far as to draft an op-ed rebutting the CDC article, although it was never published. The op-ed accused the MMWR authors of trying to grab headlines, calling them a “disgrace to public service.”
While some HHS career officials apparently tried to defuse Alexander's criticism by making changes in wording or headlines of MMWR articles, at least one confronted the pressure tactics.
Bill Hall, a senior career spokesman, wrote to Caputo and Alexander to explain that the CDC's publication was akin to a peer-reviewed scientific journal and that HHS historically had respected its independence. The HHS public affairs office that Caputo once headed “is not a science or medical program office," wrote Hall. "As a matter of longstanding policy, we do not engage in clearing scientific articles, as that arena needs to remain an independent process.”
The HHS statement said Alexander's emails “absolutely did not shape department policy or strategy.”
Clyburn explained he took the step of issuing subpoenas in part because his investigation has turned up evidence suggesting attempts to destroy records. A congressional demand for materials raises the legal stakes for anyone attempting to destroy or conceal materials.
Dr. Charlotte Kent, CDC's chief of scientific publications, previously told committee investigators she was ordered to delete an email from Alexander attacking an MMWR article on coronavirus transmission among children. Kent said she believed the order had come from Redfield. It was transmitted to her through another official.
Redfield responded at the time that he had told CDC staffers to ignore Alexander's email, and that he is fully committed to maintaining the independence of the MMWR health reports.
HHS said Monday that Kent's email “was never deleted – it was archived.”
