National Security Secrecy Used To Suppress Science and Block Public Disclosure Of The COVID Pandemic
Once Again, The Media Misses The Point
Professional, scientific and medical ethics require disclosure
[Important Updates below – photo was inserted 9/13/20]
Senate Intelligence Cmte. briefing on COVID, Jan. 24, 2020 (Source: World Socialist Website, 9/11/20)
There has been an avalanche of media coverage of the Senate’s corrupt insider trading stock scandal, where at least 4 US Senators unloaded millions of dollars in stock following a January 24, 2020 briefing by the CDC and Trump administration officials, see:
As usual, all the major media outlets are tripping over themselves to write the same story.
And in their typical tawdry feeding frenzy on corruption, what the media are missing are the far more important public health and government policy issues:
Why was the January 24 Senate briefing by CDC confidential?
Why didn’t the CDC scientists disclose the information publicly and warn the American public about the risks they were aware of regarding the exploding Coronavirus Pandemic?
Why didn’t US Senators and other members of Congress and their staffs disclose this information and warn the public?
(at a recent press briefing (no links), government officials refused to answer a reporter’s question and provide national data on key public health concerns, including the capacity of the National Strategic Stockpile, number of hospital beds, number of ventilators, masks, or number of ICU beds. Why is all this classified information?)
These are critically important questions, especially in light of President Trump’s efforts on January 22 – just 2 days prior to the Senate briefing- to flat out lie about the risks:
JOE KERNEN: –are there worries about a pandemic at this point?
PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. Not at all. And– we’re– we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s—going to be just fine.
Why didn’t US Senators and their staff’s disclose this critical CDC information so the American people could protect themselves and hold government accountable?
I did quick research to learn the Senate Intelligence Committee and Congressional rules that applied to that CDC Senate briefing, and discovered that Congressional rules allow public disclosure if “the public interest would be served by such disclosure.”
SEC. 8. (a) The select committee may, …, disclose publicly any information in the possession of such committee after a determination by such committee that the public interest would be served by such disclosure.
OBVIOUSLY, the public interest would have been served by warning people (and State and local governments) about the Coronavirus risks then known by CDC scientists and epidemiologists.
It gets even worse.
While National Security is used as a pretext to suppress science and public disclosure of public health risks, US National Security laws and policy framework do not include “health care” as a national security issue.
While the Congress covers up the COVID Pandemic using National Security secrecy, note this contradiction, according to the CDC’s “Crimson Contagion” simulation:
the definition of national defense does not explicitly include health care resources, thereby highlighting the uncertainty of using the Defense Production Act to produce much needed medical countermeasures and matched vaccines in response to an influenza pandemic.
How twisted is that?
But it wasn’t only cowardly and corrupt US Senators and their staffs that withheld critical public health information from the American public.
I could find no laws, regulations, or policies that would restrict any CDC scientist, epidemiologist or other professional from disclosing this critical scientific, public health and epidemiological modeling information to the press and the public.
In fact, professional, scientific and medical ethics require such disclosure.
Where were all the scientists?
[Update – since I wrote this, media has reported that Trump received White House Daily briefings by national security and intelligence people on COVID risks as early as Jan. (likely earlier). ~~~ end update]
Update: 4/28/20 – The door to the cover-up story finally opens a crack in the NY Times, but the coverup was underway long before the end of February:
- How Trump and His Team Covered Up the Coronavirus in Five Days ~~~ end update]