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South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, who serves as the Chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (SSCC), said Wednesday he could subpoena the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for information regarding an allegedly deleted email. Meanwhile, emails sent to Newsweek Wednesday indicated that an individual appointed to the HHS by President Donald Trump recommended a herd immunity approach to battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Charlotte Kent, editor-in-chief of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, testified before the SSCC in December that she had been asked to delete an email from former HHS adviser Dr. Paul Alexander. The email allegedly requested a change to a report on virus transmission between schoolchildren.
Kent said she was not sure who gave the instructions to delete the email, but believed the request came from CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield. In a statement released by the SSCC on Wednesday, Clyburn implied that his committee's investigation into the allegations was being stonewalled.
"The documents released today reinforce the need for HHS to end its obstruction of the Select Subcommittee's investigation into the political meddling that has hindered the nation's response to this deadly virus," Clyburn said. "HHS must produce the critical documents and witnesses it is withholding, and CDC Director Robert Redfield must appear for an interview regarding evidence that he ordered CDC staff to delete a key email. Unless the Administration abandons this flagrant obstruction, I will be forced to start issuing subpoenas."
In a Thursday interview with the Associated Press, Redfield denied that he asked for the deletion of Alexander's email. "I would never tell somebody to delete an email," Redfield said. "What I did tell people—I instructed CDC to ignore Dr. Alexander's comments and they didn't need to reply to his email."
Other emails written by Alexander seem to indicate he was attempting to influence some public health officials to steer their COVID-19 recommendations towards supporting the idea of herd immunity.
Herd immunity occurs when the majority of a population becomes infected with a virus and recovers. The recovery leaves antibodies behind in the system which renders the virus unable to reinfect a subject.
In a June email, Alexander said "this is why the concept of herd immunity is so critical for this virus is boxed in if we get to that number of about 60% population immunity via our own infection of vaccine (or combination). Hiding from the virus allows it to lay in wait."
Alexander also condemned the "left scientists who work against the administration."
"They want to destroy the nation and people's lives just to make the President look bad," Alexander wrote.
In July, Alexander disparaged infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci for a television appearance in which Fauci said the COVID-19 virus had mutated. "He just wont stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Alexander wrote. "He cant keep quiet.....and he is not on the same page of the govn...does he think he is the President???"
In a separate July email, Alexander called for using people deemed to be at low risk for contracting the virus to be used to develop herd immunity. "Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk... so we use them to develop herd... we want them infected... and recovered... with antibodies," Alexander wrote.
According to a statement emailed to Newsweek by an HHS spokesperson, Alexander's emails "absolutely did not shape department strategy."
In an October appearance on Meet the Press, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that herd immunity was not official policy. "It's a desire, through vaccination, to get to herd immunity," Azar said, "but it may be an outcome of all of those steps, but the desire is reduce cases, reduce cases, reduce hospitalizations, reduce fatalities. That's, that's what I am focused on every day."
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has reported 16,716,777 positive cases of COVID-19 with 303,773 fatalities attributed to the virus as of December 16.
Updated 12/17/2020 10:34 p.m. EST: This story has been updated with a statement from HHS.
