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The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic on Wednesday demanded all phone records between outgoing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten.
In a letter to Walensky, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chair of the subcommittee, said the committee is demanding the records for its investigation into potential political interference on the part of AFT with the CDC’s school reopening recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weingarten told the committee during a hearing in April that she had Walensky’s direct phone number — which Walensky confirmed during her testimony before the same committee earlier this month.
The subcommittee gave the CDC until July 12 to respond with the phone records, along with transcribed interviews with three CDC employees who “may have supplementary knowledge about political interference at the agency.”
The three employees in question are Christopher M. Jones, PharmD, DrPH, MPH, director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control; Henry Walke, M.D., MPH, director of the Office of Readiness and Response; and Greta Massetti, Ph.D., MPH, branch chief of the CDC’s Field Epidemiology and Prevention Branch.
According to the Washington Examiner, “Wenstrup is looking to preserve phone records between the two on both Walensky’s official and personal phones, particularly in light of the director’s announcement she would be leaving her post Friday.”
This isn’t the first time the committee has requested documentation from the CDC regarding communications. Wenstrup addressed these requests in his letter, stating:
“On March 28, 2023, we wrote to you regarding potential political interference at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), specifically regarding the CDC’s February 12, 2022, COVID-19 school reopening guidance titled, ‘Operation Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention.’ … You failed to respond.
“Again, on June 1, 2023, we wrote to you regarding this issue. … You have since only produced documents primarily consisting of those previously made public via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”
The letter also accused the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the CDC’s parent agency, of “continuing its pattern of obstructing Congress” by providing only those documents already publicly available.
“The Department’s obstruction will not be tolerated,” the letter stated. “The American people deserve transparency.”
Wenstrup’s request is the latest in a recent series of developments that have placed Weingarten’s relationship with CDC officials under scrutiny.
Earlier this month, Christy Hudson, spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Parents Association in Virginia, spoke to Fox News on “Fox & Friends Weekend” about text messages between Weingarten and Walensky discovered through a FOIA request the association filed.
Hudson said the messages revealed “political maneuvering behind reopening plans” for schools, telling Fox News:
“We were not surprised at all by the fact that there was political maneuvering behind reopening plans. Parents witnessed that firsthand back in 2021.
“But we were a little surprised to see just how chummy the relationship between the teachers’ union and the CDC was. I think most of us tend to think of the CDC as sort of the gold standard in using science-based, very fact-driven metrics.
“These text messages read like friends making dinner plans.”
Responding to an excerpt of Weingarten testifying that “We spent every day … trying to get schools open” and that “We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools … We just wanted to be safe,” Hudson described these statements as “a complete rewriting of history.”
“Any parent and child could tell you that what we saw over and over were the teachers’ unions, the CDC, putting adult wants in front of children’s needs,” she said.
According to Just The News, “Questions about Weingarten’s influence extend beyond the CDC to other federal agencies as well,” including the U.S. Department of Education.
AFT is the largest teachers’ union in the U.S. Weingarten and the AFT have been criticized for advocating for vaccine mandates for students and teachers, with Weingarten having stated that they offered “a silver lining.”
Weingarten also supported mandatory masking in schools, describing maintenance of the policy as “absolutely the right way.”
In February 2022, AFT launched a collaboration with NewsGuard, a for-profit “fact-checking” company with deep ties to Big Pharma — to help students in U.S. classrooms “navigate a sea of online disinformation,” including with regard to COVID-19 narratives.
