Dear Friend,

BREAKING: The Trump administration will no longer allow the Centers for
Disease Control access to coronavirus data.

After telling lie after lie about the pandemic—including that 99 percent
of cases are "harmless" and the virus will just "disappear" soon—Donald
Trump just couldn't make the facts line up with his fake stories.^1,2

So now hospitals will be required to send data on coronavirus infections
directly to Trump's Department of Health and Human Services—where the CDC
and the public won't be able to access it.^3

We cannot allow the Trump White House to hide valuable infection data from
us in the middle of a pandemic, especially as the it is getting a lot
worse. Congress must step in and demand that access to coronavirus data be
returned to the CDC.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to help stop Trump's outrageous attempt to hide
coronavirus data from the public?

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Epidemiologists, state and local governments, and organizations across the
country are relying on the CDC's regular updates on coronavirus infection
rates and hospitalizations to make crucial decisions, like whether to open
schools or allow businesses to operate. But as of yesterday, hospitals are
no longer allowed to send that information to the CDC, but instead must
provide it to a central White House database where it won't be accessible
to the public.

This is an incredibly dangerous blow to government transparency, as well
as a huge setback to our health care system's efforts to control the
virus.

Trump has already politicized science in a way that no other president
before has. On Tuesday, former directors of the CDC, spanning Republican
and Democratic presidencies, wrote an open letter published in the
Washington Post warning of the dangers of letting Trump continue to
mislead the public on the data and recommendations of the agency.^4

Now the president has cut the CDC out entirely.

At this moment, the US is home to a quarter of the world's coronavirus
cases, and hospitalizations are spiking in more than half of states.^5 If
the Trump administration is allowed to quash the data, health
professionals will be operating in the dark as they try to control the
virus and keep the public safe.

The Trump administration is continuing to escalate its out-of-control
power grab, and this latest move is a terrifying threat to the lives of
millions. We need Congress to rein in Trump and force the White House to
hand coronavirus data back to the CDC—and ensure that the CDC is working
independently of Trump's influence. Science, not Trump's whims, must guide
their work.

[ [link removed] ]Will you donate to help call on Congress to stop Trump's abuses of
power and keep coronavirus data transparent?

For our democracy,

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

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Sources:
1. Fox News, "FDA commissioner pressed by Sunday show hosts over Trump's
claim '99 percent' of coronavirus cases 'harmless'," [ [link removed] ]July 5, 2020
2. NBC News, "Trump says he thinks coronavirus will 'just disappear'
despite rising cases," [ [link removed] ]July 1, 2020
3. The New York Times, "Trump Administration Strips C.D.C. of Control of
Coronavirus Data," [ [link removed] ]July 14, 2020
4. The Washington Post, "We ran the CDC. No president ever politicized its
science the way Trump has." [ [link removed] ]July 14, 2020
5. USA Today, "US hits 3M coronavirus cases – about a quarter of the
world's total. What number will spark societal changes to slow exponential
rise?" [ [link removed] ]July 8, 2020
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