The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is under fire for school closures en masse, and for lack of transparency in the decision-making process. A conservative watchdog and ethics non-profit, Americans for Public Trust (APT), is suing the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for failing to produce records related to school closures. The group argues that the lack of transparency could be attributed to influence from teachers' unions.
The complaint filed says that the CDC ignored a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request earlier this year.
"Plaintiff seeks disclosure of records in the possession of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ('HHS') containing 'emails, communications, correspondence, and/or talking points describing CDC guidance for the reopening of schools' between January 15, 2021, to the present in certain CDC officials' email accounts identified in Plaintiff's February 4, 2021 FOIA request letter. Additionally, Plaintiff seeks a determination from Defendants in response to its administrative appeal challenging numerous redactions and fully withheld records throughout the 497 pages of CDC records produced thus far," the complaint reads in part.
APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News that the few pages of documents that the group was able to obtain showed that teachers' unions did have influence over the CDC's guidance.
"A few months back, Americans for Public Trust requested documents from the CDC. However, the CDC released only a handful of pages out of hundreds of documents received," Sutherland said. "And that small portion revealed the teachers' unions influenced the CDC to keep our schools closed."
Prominent teachers' unions spent the majority of the pandemic failing to follow science by keeping schools closed for over a year when data indicated that children could return to the classroom safely with protocols in place.