Trump nominee involved in ditching CDC coronavirus guide to reopening, emails show

Ex-chemical industry executive allegedly told top diseases experts that their recommendations ‘will never see the light of the day’

Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top consumer watchdog was involved in the decision to sideline detailed guidelines to help communities reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, internal government emails show.

Democrats on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee now ask how the ex-American Chemistry Council director came to help shelve the CDC guidelines.

Ms Beck is not a medical doctor and has no background in virology, but emails obtained by The Associated Press (AP) show that Ms Beck was the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) main point of contact at the White House about the proposed recommendations.

The 63-page CDC report would have provided community leaders with step-by-step instructions for reopening schools, day care centers, restaurants and other facilities.

According to an unnamed CDC official, the ‘Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework’ would have meant some services would have been unable to open.

They told CNN, based on the CDC unpublished guidelines, that “no one who is reopening meets the criteria for reopening”.

“I am deeply concerned by the nominee’s involvement in advocating for the deregulation of toxic chemicals known as PFAS,” said Democrat senator Maria Cantwell on Ms Beck’s record, to AP.

As the equivalent ranking Democrat on the Commerce, Science and Transport committee, Ms Cantwell continued: “I also have questions about her potential involvement with the CDC coronavirus guidance”.

Sources told AP that one day before Mr Trump announced his own reopening plans on 1 May, Ms Beck had told the CDC that its guidelines would “never see the light of day”.

Emails between Ms Beck and Robert “Kyle” McGowan, the CDC’s chief of staff, show that the agency continued to chase-up White House revisions to the guidelines before they abandoned.

Congresswoman Ms Cantwell said the emails raise “serious questions about whether you believe in preserving and respecting the scientific and professional integrity of scientists and health professionals that work at agencies like the CDC and the CPSC.”

President Trump nominated Ms Beck to be chairwoman and commissioner of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission last month, but the Senate must confirm her appointment later this month.

Ms Beck joined the Environmental Protection Agency in 2017 as a top official in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, after a career in the chemicals industry.

Democrats and environmentalists have criticised her nomination to the position.