WOW—Emails from Caputo and his science adviser show how the two refused to accept CDC science and sought to silence the agency. Lashed out at CDC staff and falsely claimed kids have “zero” risk of death. #COVID19 nytimes.com/2020/09/18/us/…
2) I’m still beyond shocked by the details in the piece. It’s one long train wreck. And the hubris of Paul Alexander (Caputo’s aide) to think he knows better than the entire legion of CDC scientists is jaw dropping level of arrogance and stupidity.
3) “Mr. Caputo moved to punish the C.D.C.’s communications team for granting interviews to NPR and attempting to help a CNN reporter reach him about a public-relations campaign. Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation.”
4) This is messed up—“Mr. Caputo wrote to C.D.C. comms officials to demand they turn over the name of the press officer who approved a series of interviews between NPR & a longtime C.D.C. epidemiologist, after HHS had moved to take ownership of CDC pandemic data collection...
5) “I need to know who did it,” Caputo wrote. A day later, still without a reply, he wrote back. “I have not received a response to my email for 20 hours. This is unacceptable. I need this info to properly manage comms. If you disobey my directions, you will be held accountable.”
6) “One C.D.C. communications official became so worried about Mr. Caputo’s threat that she wrote to other senior staff asking how to reply, saying that she was “uncomfortable turning over our employee’s name to Mr. Caputo, given the hostility of the message.”
7) In another email to an agency comm officer who had directed a CNN reporter to contact Mr. Caputo about a vaccine PR campaign, Mr. Caputo shot back, “In what world did you think it was your job to announce an administration public service announcement campaign to CNN?” ...
8) “press official then apologized, which did not satisfy Caputo. “We will discuss this on a teleconference. I want your H.R. rep in attendance,” he wrote. He then scolded official for removing Redfield from email thread after Mr. Caputo had added the director in a prior email.
9) “In the emails obtained by The Times, Mr. Caputo repeatedly added Dr. Redfield, who was overseeing an 11,000-person agency, to email chains about news media disputes. People familiar with the emails said it was an attempt to use Dr. Redfield to shame his own staff.”
10) “[Redfield] would call senior aides sounding resigned to the orders and asking how to navigate Mr. Caputo’s demands. Often, he tried to delay or ignore Mr. Caputo until the tension subsided.” ➡️ Redfield sounds powerless and tried to punt Caputo it seems.
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