BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – There is a growing concern about the efforts by school lobbyists to influence guidance for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to a report by the New York Post, The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation's most powerful unions, lobbied the CDC on its school-reopening guidance released in February. The report said there was language from the union adopted by the federal agency, including a line affecting in-person instruction in the event of high-community transmission.
The concern may create the perception the CDC is choosing to listen to the lobbying groups rather than their own science.
"It would be, frankly, shocking if the Centers for Disease Control, one of the pre-eminent health agencies in the world, would put itself in a position politically on an issue that's so important like trying to get our young people in school across the country as often as we can get them in school," Hamburg Superintendent Michael Cornell, who is also the President of the Erie Niagara Superintendent's Association, said. "It would be shocking and disappointing. I have read the reports and hope they're not true."
Cornell said that, if true, the AFT's actions are representative of their political tactics instead of a true reflection of the teacher's values.
The Post's reporting came from emails obtained by Americans for Public Trust, a conservative watchdog group.
Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein said the CDC is using evidence-based guidelines and pushed back on the notion that lobbyists have an influence with the CDC.
"They don't cower to those special interest groups, especially right now in this administration," Burstein said. "I used to work in the Division of Adolescent and School Health at CDC. I know the people that write those guidelines. They wouldn't cower under that type of pressure."
Burstein re-affirmed that the CDC guidelines on schools is good.
"The state writes the guidelines for school," Burstein said.
"They set school policy. The school's role is to interpret that New York State policy and implement it. The Erie County Health Department's role is to conduct the case investigation and isolation and quarantine. We all have our own roles and I think from the public health standpoint, we are standing hard. We are not going to be influenced by anybody with special interests both here in Erie County, the state level, nor at CDC."
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last month that she expects all schools will be fully in-person and no longer remote this September.
