Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources
Source: Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. governments response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.
The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.
Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.
We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go, one official said. These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive-idUSKBN20Y2LM
SWBTATTReg
(22,100 posts)redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,806 posts)want Trump's incompetence to be revealed to the nation.........Especially this incredible F***up
That also enables them to put out THEIR propoganda and THEIR interpretation without contradiction.....
Also, by classifying it, none of those experts can talk on their own at any time.......
Right out of Hitler's playbook. He must be going down a checklist of pre-war Germany......
certainot
(9,090 posts)again in 2020 to disrupt elections and close the border. in 2014 jerome corsi did about a story a day in oct for a rw internet rag and it was hyped on RW radio and then it all ended right after the election. they and maybe russians, cause corsi is part of that, were hyping it, using it. of course they would use it again but now they have an uncopntrolable a real one.
social media (russian?) were disinforming and inciting congolese to attack and disrupt ebola clinics in the recent event. talk radio was used to suggest congolese were joining the immigrant 'caravans' 'attacking' our borders.they closed down the units obama put in place to deal with this event.
limbaugh just mentioned it again, saying the recent ebola events proved the 'great' obama efforts were useless, etc.
so if at some level they wanted to use this they might get to where they were talking about the ebola problem they might have been waiting for that limbaugh could overblow with talk radio etc and an actual disastrous problem with too many implications these dumbfucks have no imagination for anticipating or creativity for dealing with.
it never fucking ends until liberals pull their earbuds out of theirears and stop ignoring the radio.
maxrandb
(15,318 posts)It tied racism and fear together in a tight little bow for them.
iluvtennis
(19,844 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)that they have to try to take advantage of. and unlike katrina it isn't mostly about african americans. and in this case the 'guy in charge', while actually being significantly stupider than bush, doesn't take orders except by knowing that you might be able to get him to do the opposite of what you're pretending to want him to do
Tech
(1,770 posts)woodsprite
(11,910 posts)grift in the process.
You called that one exactly!
Plus, they're trying to figure out how they can keep the virus from throwing trump out of office in 2020.
barbtries
(28,787 posts)getting in the grift is much more important than saving the country.
2naSalit
(86,515 posts)bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)Wow! WTF!
Watch the Media just cave once more.
McKim
(2,412 posts)So was Big Pharma there? How much money is being made off the privatized testing kits while Trump refused the free kits from WHO weeks ago?
captain queeg
(10,157 posts)He is crazed. Every step he makes it gets worse. Today the Dow Jones will lose about as many points as the number of positive tests in the US; over a thousand. All he cares about is the stock market and the more he tries to cover things up the more the stock market will fall. Its not the number of infections so much as his totally inept handling of the crisis. Its a lack of confidence.
bluestarone
(16,900 posts)What bullshit!
Baitball Blogger
(46,698 posts)This is what local government does when it sets up a shadow government. It helps to tamp down information.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)My God. Now I'm REALLY fucking terrified (like I wasn't already terrified enough).
duforsure
(11,885 posts)From exposing them ,and now they can threaten doctors if they tell the truth about it. Sounds like a communist country's move to protect the dictator.
marble falls
(57,065 posts)KPN
(15,642 posts)What a bunch of incompetent hacks! Time to run the pack of them off.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,708 posts)the end of October into November. Perhaps leading to an unprecedented move by conger to delay the election.
turbinetree
(24,688 posts)riversedge
(70,184 posts).............The White House insistence on secrecy at the nations premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people.
HHS oversees a broad range of health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which among other things is responsible for tracking cases and providing guidance nationally on the outbreaks.
The administration officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they could not describe the interactions in the meeting room because they were classified.
An NSC spokesman did not respond to questions about the meetings at HHS. But he defended the administrations transparency across federal agencies and noted that meetings of the administrations task force on the coronavirus all are unclassified. It was not immediately clear which meetings he was referring to.
From day one of the response to the coronavirus, NSC has insisted on the principle of radical transparency, said the spokesman, John Ullyot. He added that the administration has cut red tape and set the global standard in protecting the American people under President Trumps leadership.
A spokeswoman for the HHS, Katherine McKeogh, issued a statement that did not address questions about classified meetings. Using language that echoed the NSCs, the department said it that it agreed task-force meetings should be unclassified.
Javaman
(62,515 posts)aka business as usual.
randr
(12,409 posts)Republicans always look for profit in other peoples misery
shawn703
(2,702 posts)Or maybe to Obamas tan suit?
durablend
(7,459 posts)We know that started it all
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)It's to protect his political image.
usaf-vet
(6,178 posts)WHO: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142445313
I just found this website from an earlier DU posting.
Nearly real-time Global, USA, China, and Canadian data.
USA data by state
https://ncov2019.live/
Delphinus
(11,830 posts)I've not come across - thank you.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)the people?
2naSalit
(86,515 posts)a little different from what a certain revolutionary expected.
sinkingfeeling
(51,444 posts)I_UndergroundPanther
(12,463 posts)When a bunch of sociopaths, narcissists and authoritarian pieces of shit control too much.
We need to exclude dark triad people from all positions of power.
Ingersollman
(204 posts)Jared and Ivanka allowed in? That's all that really matters, anyway.
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)And in the midst of a global health crisis, we are supposed to trust what we hear. Let us look to Europe for information. CV is everywhere in the US, we just don't know the answers to the important questions: how many cases, the speed of contagion, etc. etc.
Danascot
(4,690 posts)from all the times he shoots himself in the foot.
He's not coming back from this one (in combination with the financial markets).
Eyeball_Kid
(7,430 posts)the kill rate of the virus, and how many deaths are expected given the current, abysmal death rate, with minimum intervention. "Minimum intervention" is what we're seeing right now, and we should expect that any tools soon or presently available will NOT mitigate the damage to health and life. The Trump White House will NOT go full throttle to mitigate the infection rate. They are doing financial calculations: how many deaths can be tolerated without spending massive funds to attack the spread? Which corporations are designated to profit mightily from medical interventions?
Another question, as cynical as it sounds: Is Trump realizing that this virus outbreak can "depopulate" the nation to the benefit of the economy in general, or specific corporations in particular? Trump has already indicated that he does not value the sanctity of human life. And we know that Trump doesn't change. It's quite possible that Trump is actively perpetuating a bungled public health disaster so that those medically vulnerable populations, which cost the health care industry untold billions of dollars, will simply die off, with more than a little nudge from COVID-19. The profits to health insurance companies will skyrocket.
We cannot presume a humanitarian motive out of sociopath Trump. Trump, by every diagnosis, objectifies any person inside or outside of his sphere of influence. They are all in service to HIS well-being. If massive death events will increase donations from segments of the economy, then Trump knows what to do. And he'll do it if he can get away with it.
ace3csusm
(969 posts)1.declare national emergency
2.Martial Law
3.Corona Camps
intheflow
(28,461 posts)Because if they actually gave a shit about the country, and were discussing this in January, we'd have enough tests available for everyone.