Coronavirus: White House shelves extensive CDC guide to help states reopen

The White House has shelved a 17-page Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report meant to provide state and local officials with step-by-step guidelines on how they could reopen their areas, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The document, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was expected to be released last Friday, but agency scientists were told it would “never see the light of day,” a CDC official told AP.

Top disease experts for the nation compiled the document to assist on how communities should reopen public areas – such as mass transit, schools, daycares, summer camps, restaurants, and churches. Some of these recommendations are on the CDC website, but the document provided more details for how one area could reopen.

For example, included in the document was suggestions that restaurants should construct sneeze guards at cash registers and avoid having food in display cases or in a buffet setting, which can be found on the CDC website. But the shelved report also provided restaurants with details on spacing tables 6 feet apart and alerting patrons through cell phone apps for when their table is ready.

“You can say that restaurants can open and you need to follow social distancing guidelines. But restaurants want to know, ‘What does that look like?’ States would like more guidance,” Dr Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told the publication.

The guidance has been widely shared within the CDC and reportedly included flow charts meant to be used by local officials as alternative scenarios during the reopening process.

One federal official described the guidance as a “touchstone document” that could be used as a blueprint for other CDC scientists when working on guidelines for other facilities. Shelving the document meant local officials would be unable to access the detailed guidance.

The CDC guidance is reportedly more detailed than the White House’s “Opening Up America Again” document that was released last month to instruct state and local officials on reopening. Those recommendations, described as vague, instructed officials to follow federal and local “regulations and guidance” when reopening and monitor employees for Covid-19 symptoms.

A person close to the White House coronavirus task force said the guidance for public sectors on reopening was shelved because areas across the US have been impacted differently by the novel virus.

Traditionally, the CDC has been at the forefront of providing the public with health information during a public health crisis. But it was noted by AP that the department has been relatively sidelined by the Trump administration, which instead put pressure on the states to decide how to reopen.

CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield was a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, but he’s been absent from public appearances as of late.

The Independent contacted the White House and CDC for a comment.