Dr. Robert Redfield called the Nevada Medical Director on a Saturday night in early March with a normal lawsuit.
Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general until 2019 and dismissed president Donald Trump, believed he had been exposed to coronavirus while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. But Laxalt has no symptoms and may not be approved for testing at a local hospital at home.
During the phone call, Redfield asked the doctor, Dr. Ihsan Azzam, to do so, according to interviews and internal communications that USA TODAY won requests for records.
Azzam, who had never met or spoken to Redfield before, was surprised: at the time, detection capacity across the country was scarce and others without symptoms were not a priority.
“It wasn’t a protocol,” Azzam told USA TODAY in an interview. “He’s a VIP person. We won a call from the DIRECTOR of the CDC who advises us on COVID-19. “
The next morning, Azzam contacted the Reno County Department of Health and accelerated the Laxalt test. Redfield called again hours later to thank him, Azzam said.
The special remedy is a striking example of how political influence penetrated the COVID-19 pandemic into cdc, creating demanding situations for local fitness authorities. This came at a time when your company knew thousands of Americans needed proof but may not receive it because of source shortages.
Redfield’s intervention on Laxalt’s behalf also highlights how some of those with strong ties, adding celebrities and star athletes, have gained preferential attention since the crisis began. “It’s a privilege,” Richard Whitley, director of Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services, told USA TODAY.
Whitley also stated that there may have been additional confusion at the original hospital about whether or not Laxalt requested a checkup for COVID-19 or the flu.
Laxalt, who is the co-chair of Trump’s Nevada crusade, responded in an email: “After CPAC, it is transparent that I met the verification criteria. I tried to make sure it wasn’t a threat to my community. given a quick review and a result. Fortunately, I marked negative. »
It’s wonderful to be back at CPAC2020 and make a stopover with some very intelligent friends, adding @DonaldJTrumpJr, @GOPLeader and HawleyMO. I look forward to speaking tomorrow, and soon after, to hear realDonaldTrump. ACUConservative pic. twitter. com / WuLaTMr1y3
White House spokesman Judd Deere told USA TODAY in an email that the White House “did not participate” in organizing the Laxalt test. He referred reporters to the CDC, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, USA TODAY published research into how CDC has deceived, ignored, and undermined local government’s fitness to fight the virus in the field.
More: How CDC failed public fitness in the fight against coronavirus
Redfield has been criticized for capitulant in the face of the political tension of the White House and for protecting the scientists of his agency. For example, White House officials reviewed the CDC’s weekly coronavirus reports and issued verification rules that contradict the agency’s own scientists.
Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat for Washington, asked Redfield about policy considerations about the agency’s public aptitude activities at a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing this week.
“Why didn’t you do more to defend yourself against President Trump’s political interference and his efforts to minimize that?”Murray asked.
Redfield said the agency’s science had been compromised and would never be under his supervision.
“We will continue to give Congress and the country the public conditioning board,” he said. “We’re not going to let political influence module that. “
Redfield also testified that a vaccine might not be available until next year and, even in this case, dressed in a mask would possibly offer more protection. Later, Trump questioned the comments in the White House. press conference, saying that he had called the director of the CDC and that he thought his comments were wrong.
The confusion continued when the CDC aired a flight with Redfield’s claims about the vaccine schedule before taking flight of the recall an hour later.
At the time of CPAC, which took place February 26-29 at a community in National Harbor, Maryland, Trump, Redfield and much of the Republican status quo were still publicly minimizing the risk of coronavirus, but the first cases of network spread were emerging. who told CDC officials that the virus circulates through the United States, the firm will recognize later.
Last week, journalist Bob Woodward revealed that President Donald Trump had told him in early February that his management knew at the time that the virus was spreading through the air and killing others at a higher rate than the flu, but Trump has publicly minimized the risks. .
The weekend after the Maryland conference, the American Conservative Union announced that one of the participants had taken the COVID-19 test. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the event, where Laxalt posed for photos with Donald Trump Jr. , Senator Josh Hawley. and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, lately Republican leader.
In Nevada, state fitness officials were furious that Redfield overlooked the public fitness formula and deviating resources to a well-connected politician. Laxalt is the grandson of the late Paul Laxalt, former Republican governor of Nevada, senator of the United States and close friend of President Ronald Reagan.
The state has had a democratic trend in recent years, but it can still be competitive in the November elections. Trump held an election rally near Reno and other Nevada sites over the weekend. Campaign-goers rushed to locate locations for occasions after local officials blocked their initial plans for allegedly violating coronavirus protection guidelines.
Laxalt’s verification raised additional considerations in March. Because he and the CDC had not followed the typical reporting design before it was verified, local Reno officials were not promptly informed of their exposure. They may not promptly take a look at other exposures imaginable or issue quarantine.
“They would have minimized increased exposure,” Nevada state epidemiologist Melissa Peek-Bullock told USA TODAY. “That’s what we were looking to do, to prevent it from spreading. We haven’t had a chance to intervene.
The US’s verification capability is the only one in the world to do so. But it’s not the first time For the coronavirus it remained limited in March after the CDC ruined the initial verification deployment last month. While Trump and federal officials said verification is widely available, materials were so limited that local and state fitness officers still influenced the fate of resources.
In Nevada, anyone referred through a doctor was being questioned by fitness officers to find out if their scenario was pressing enough to warrant an evaluation, Peek-Bullock said.
On March 7, the day Redfield called Azzam, there were between 300 and 600 positive cases across the country; there were two in Nevada; at the time, Maryland had 3 cases shown.
On March 12, Whitley, the state director, wrote a letter to Redfield chief, Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar, telling him what had happened.
“Lack of communication has delayed the public fitness reaction to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in our state,” Whitley wrote, adding that hijacked CDC maneuvers “have resulted in frustration and useless use of our limited public aptitude. . “
Azar replied.
Two weeks later, Laxalt wrote an editorial in the Reno Gazette Journal (part of USA TODAY) about Trump’s reaction to the pandemic.
“I can’t help emphasizing,” Laxalt wrote, “how fortunate we are that the Trump administration has shown time and time again that it will help the Silver State. “
Contribution: Dan Keemahill and Matt Wynn
Brett Murphy and Letitia Stein are reporters for the USA TODAY research team. Contact Brett at brett. murphy@usatoday. com, @brettMmurphy signal at 508-523-5195 and Letitia at lstein@usatoday. com, @LetitiaStein, by phone or Signal at 813-524-0673.