Trump administration tried to limit Covid-19 testing, new emails show

A new trove of emails from congressional investigators shows how Trump appointees pressured scientists tackling the coronavirus to back unproven treatments and limit testing guidelines, as the House of Representatives presses on with its oversight investigation.

The House has been conducting an oversight investigation of the Trump administration's pandemic response since last April, and its latest round of disclosures suggest a “persistent pattern of political interference in the nation’s public health response,” chairman James Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, wrote in a statement.

Taken together, material from the investigation “shows that political appointees were involved in the decision to change CDC’s guidance, and that the Trump Administration changed the guidance for the explicit purpose of reducing testing and allowing the virus to spread while quickly reopening the economy," Mr Clyburn added.