Two top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are leaving the agency in the midst of the Trump administration’s war on the Chinese coronavirus, according to Politico.
CDC chief of staff Kyle McGowan and Amanda Campbell, the deputy chief of staff, announced their exit in emails to officials Friday morning. In a statement to Politico, McGowan said the two are launching a consulting firm. The soon-to-former chief of staff also claimed he planned to depart the agency months ago, but stayed on due to the pandemic.
“We picked this day on the calendar and left to start our own business,” McGowan stated. “No one has asked us to leave. No one has forced us to leave.”
“We’re to a point where I feel comfortable leaving,” he added.
New COVID-19 cases in the United States declined on Thursday by a few thousand, updated data from researchers at Johns Hopkins University showed Friday.
The data from Johns Hopkins’ Center for Systems Science and Engineering showed 51,400 new cases, a decline from just under 56,000 the day before. Prior to that, the national tally was under 50,000 for three days in a row.
The new data Friday showed there have been 5.254 million COVID-19 cases and 167,200 deaths in the United States to date.
COVID-19-related deaths totaled just under 1,100 Thursday, the data showed, a decline from 1,500 the day before — the highest single-day toll since late May.
The UPI contributed to this report.