The Trump administration has blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from releasing a 17-page manual designed to help a wide variety of public spaces, from restaurants to schools to day-care centers to churches, re-open safely.
The Associated Press reports "agency scientists were told the guidance 'would never see the light of day,' according to a CDC official."
The guidelines, which also included guidance for employers with vulnerable workers, were set to be released Friday.
One person "close to the White House’s coronavirus task force," according to the AP, "said the CDC documents were never cleared by CDC leadership for public release," and "said that White House officials don’t want to offer detailed guidance for how specific sectors can reopen, calling it a 'slippery slope."
CNN adds that coronavirus task force co-ordinator Dr. Deborah Birx had ordered the guidelines to be created.
"We are used to dealing with a White House that asks for things and then chaos ensues. A team of people at the CDC spent innumerable hours in response to an ask from Debbie Birx," a source told CNN.
But President Trump has made clear there will not be a "new normal," and is demanding a return to the America that existed before the coronavirus.
"I see the new normal being what it was three months ago. I think we want to go back to where it was," Trump said. "I want to go back to where it was, that's where we're going to be."
President Donald Trump has made clear he will take no responsibility for anything that goes wrong, while demanding credit for anything that goes right.
“No, I don’t take responsibility at all,” Trump infamously said in mid-March when asked about coronavirus testing failures.