The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) announced that it has made public a large collection of documents pertaining to its probe into alleged misconduct at the Centers for Disease Control, where the policy objectives may have improperly overshadowed public health issues.
“The CDC is a taxpayer-funded government agency, not an advocacy organization or political operation,” Functional Government Initiative Communications Director Pete McGinnis said in a report on June 21. “The American people should have confidence that its public health institutions are prioritizing science and objectively responding to concerns, not simply pushing an administration’s policy agenda.”
According to the report, the FGI obtained files through the Freedom of Information Act showing that the CDC public relations staff responded to the press about COVID vaccines differently based on the publication's political views. The FGI is a new entity that is focused on investigative research and education into the government to boost the U.S. public’s understanding.
In the last month of 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Quickly, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson received similar authorizations as well. The typical process for vaccine formulation and acceptance, which involves safety and clinical trials, spans at least five to 10 years. Due to the rapid release of the vaccines, many U.S. citizens have been skeptical, which triggered the FGI probe.
The report said the FOIA documents showed bias based on politics when dealing with the media, and conservative news outlets such as the Washington Times received responses that were often delayed and had less information. Often, there were merely links to public information. Left-leaning outlets like Buzzfeed and Axios received more detailed and timely responses, which often involved interviews with experts from the CDC.
The report said that evidence shows the CDC may have downplayed or ignored outlets that were more critical, and the CDC may have prioritized responses to the outlets that supported its strategy involving COVID-19.
