Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Thursday that whistleblowers prove that it's clear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took advice from ''the American Teachers Association, the National Education Association, and other teacher groups."
On ''Spicer & Co.," Comer suggested that the political interference from the groups kept ''schools shut down" long after it was necessary.
''We also wonder why they [the CDC] never have taken a harder stance on efforts to try to determine the origination of COVID-19," Comer said. ''And plus — the budget — I mean, prior to COVID, the CDC had a $2 billion annual budget, the majority of which came from the United States. Well, during COVID ... Congress appropriated the CDC $7 billion more."
''I think they are long overdue for oversight. We have so many questions, not just with how they spent their money, but what they base their decisions on," he continued. ''Was it that actual science, or was it the political science?"
The comments from the congressman come a year after a series of emails between the CDC and teachers groups were leaked following a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, the New York Post reported at the time.
''Thank you again for Friday's rich discussion about forthcoming CDC guidance and for your openness to the suggestions made by our president, Randi Weingarten, and the AFT," AFT senior director for health issues Kelly Trautner wrote to the agency in a February 2021 email.
Comer, who is seeking reelection this year in Kentucky's 1st Congressional District, said there were ''legitimate questions that really aren't partisan questions" regarding the CDC's actions since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.
''Right now, the Democrats are doing everything in their ability to protect the CDC, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes for Health, and any other government agency," he proclaimed.
''Yet, we continue to publish more emails and more communication that would suggest that these health agencies that we give billions and billions of dollars to, they follow the political science instead of the actual science," he added.
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