US CDC pushed to play down COVID-19 risks in reopening schools: Former official

WASHINGTON - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was placed under pressure to play down the risks of the coronavirus pandemic in reopening schools, CNN reported on Monday.

The report quoted Olivia Troye, who worked as Vice President Mike Pence's lead staffer with the White House Coronavirus Task Force for months before leaving the Trump administration last month.

Troye said she was "blindsided" when junior staffers were being tasked to "find different data for charts to show that the virus wasn't as bad for certain populations, ages or demographics."

However, studies have shown children can spread the disease just like adults.

The report also said Troye confirmed an incident in June in which Pence's chief of staff Marc Short pushed her and junior staffers to try to circumvent the CDC in finding data on the coronavirus that would better support President Donald Trump's claim that COVID-19 poses little danger to children and that schools should reopen.

"I think it put these task force members and doctors in a very challenging position," she said.

More than 587,000 children in the United States have tested positive for COVID-19 since the outbreak, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, with a 15 percent increase in cases in children between Sept 3 and Sept 17, the report added.