At the start of May, serious people asked serious questions about the American Federation of Teachers – (AFT) the largest teachers’ union in the U.S. – possibly steering U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) policy regarding federal school closure recommendations. And now, after the revelations of what appear to be policy-effecting emails between the AFT and the CDC, the Deputy Director of the CDC is the second top official at that completely, wholly reliable and squeaky-clean agency to resign due to the scandal.
Reports Jordan Davidson, for The Federalist:
Anne Schuchat, the CDC’s principal deputy director, was one of multiple government health officials included in emails between The American Federation of Teachers union, who repeatedly lobbied against in-person schooling, and the agency over the school reopening guidelines which were released earlier this year.
And Schuchat is not the first tax-consuming parasite to depart after the email scandal came to light.
Schuchat is the second major CDC official to resign in the last few weeks. Days before Schuchat’s announcement, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, the former director of the National Center for Immunization and Diseases, announced that her last day would be May 14.
At the heart of the immediate CDC problem is the fact that in early May, the agency was revealed to have exchanged emails with members of the leftist special interest group, the American Federation of Teachers, that appear to have influenced CDC policy, steering it towards recommending that schools stay COVID-closed.
Related: Pelosi Will Require Masks In The House, Contrary To Her Beloved CDC 'Guidelines'
Reported Fox News’ Caitlin McFall, at the time:
Communication obtained by the New York Post through a Freedom of Information Act request issued by the conservative group, Americans for Public Trust, showed numerous emails between top CDC officials and the union just days before the administration released school reopening guidelines in February.
And she added:
The lobbying efforts were a reported success as the Post found at least two instances when ‘suggestions’ were used nearly word-for-word within the CDC’s guidelines.
The CDC had been prepared to allow in-school instruction regardless of transmission rates. But at the suggestion of the union, the guidelines were adjusted to include a provision that said, ‘In the event of high community-transmission results from a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a new update of these guidelines may be necessary.’
Of course, one cannot be certain that this controversy is the specific reason for either Messonier’s or Schuchat’s resignations. Writes Davidson, for The Federalist:
Schuchat says she is leaving the agency to “allow more time for creative passions” after spending the last seven years in her spot as the CDC’s second-in-command. And while the shifting sands and reported clashed (sic) with current Director Rochelle Walensky could be a contributing factor, it is still unclear why she chose to resign now.
Those “creative passions” must be pretty fiery, since they’re drawing her away from a government job that, when benefits are factored in, hands Schuchat (and Messonier) over $150,000 a year.The two CDC bureaucrats got some hefty salaries at taxpayer expense, so perhaps this shakeup from the email scandal will help save Americans some of their own cash.
Wait. That’s not going to happen. Just like most Americans aren’t aware of the fact that the CDC is unconstitutional and that the feds aren’t supposed to be involved with fighting naturally occurring diseases (and if there were some disease created by a foreign nation for warfare, the U.S. Congress would have to declare War to engage that nation-state), American’s won’t get their tax cash back in some kind of “refund” now that these bureaucrats are gone.
The bureaucracy will remain and it will grow. Those positions will be filled, and the beast will continue to eat away our substance.
Is there a vaccine to fight the state? Sure. It’s called respect for one’s neighbor and his or her rights.
Respect that bureaucrats don’t seem to have.
Related: CDC Now Says Vaccinated Americans Can Go About Their Lives Without Masks