Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky only met once with parents during the entire COVID-19 pandemic to discuss school reopening policies, a newly released calendar reveals.
Walensky met one time for 30 minutes with parents despite claiming multiple times the CDC had taken parents’ concerns into consideration, according to Americans for Public Trust, which obtained the calendar via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. In contrast, she met multiple times with leadership from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA), and had frequent email and phone contact with both organizations.
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Records obtained by Americans for Public Trust reveal that @CDCDirector only met with parents *one time for thirty minutes* to discuss school reopening guidance – while teacher union bosses had constant access.https://t.co/23SzEBkTzU
— Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) July 7, 2022
“Instead of giving parents a meaningful seat at the table, [Walensky] once again prioritized teacher union bosses – giving them instant and unfettered access while parents were relegated to a singular 30-minute meeting,” APT executive director Caitlin Sutherland told Fox News.
CDC scientists and officials met with parents at various events throughout the pandemic and fielded thousands of public comments, the agency told Fox News in response to APT’s report. Walensky, however, just had the single 30-minute Zoom call on her personal calendar. (RELATED: REPORT: Teachers Unions Bullied The White House, CDC Into Changing School Masking Guidelines)
AFT president Randi Weingarten previously tweeted a screenshot of the meeting schedule as a rebuttal to claims that Walensky wasn’t meeting with parents.
Fox, WSJ, NY Post, and The 74 are probably never going to let their readers know that the CDC met with parents too. But everyone should know that they did, and that the NYPost knew they did when they wrote their hit piece. This is how the CDC gets stakeholder feedback. pic.twitter.com/pVrwZLEPsw
— Randi Weingarten ☮️🇺🇦 (@rweingarten) May 6, 2021
Previously revealed emails showed that the CDC altered its school reopening guidance within days, and sometimes hours, of Walensky and other top officials communicating with teachers union officials.