Republican NC lawmakers bash CDC in fundraising messages

Even as coronavirus spreads rapidly across North Carolina, Republican state lawmakers are trying to raise money by attacking public health officials.

Posted 10:58 p.m. Jul 29, 2021 — Updated 10:58 p.m. Jul 29, 2021

Laura Leslie

, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief

RALEIGH, N.C. — Even as coronavirus spreads rapidly across North Carolina, Republican state lawmakers are trying to raise money by attacking public health officials.

House and Senate Republican leaders have bashed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in recent fundraising emails, accusing the agency of trying to use fear to control people's lives.

After the CDC recommended a return to wearing masks this week, Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s campaign sent out a fundraising email titled "CDC issues new guidelines to ignore."

"This decision isn’t about science. It’s about Left-Wing bureaucrats playing political games and trying to control Americans lives," Berger said in the message, which also compared the mask guidance with recommendations against eating raw cookie dough.

The House Republican Caucus also sent out an anti-CDC fundraising email.

"From flip-flopping on whether COVID-19 spread from human transmission to the false and blatant lies about the effectiveness of masks, the CDC and [the World Health Organization] have lost the trust of the American people," that message stated.

House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday that he disagrees with the latest mask guidance, but he has been fully vaccinated.

"I’ve never suggested that individuals simply ignore public health guidance." said Moore, R-Cleveland. "The vaccines developed under the Trump administration work, and this recent CDC guidance does nothing but undermine public confidence in those vaccines and potentially discourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated."

Pat Ryan, a spokesman for Berger, R-Rockingham, blamed the CDC for changing its position on masks.

"To the extent public health messaging is being undermined, it’s because of whiplash from the public health authorities themselves and not a fundraising email sent to a few hundred people," Ryan said.

Berger "believes people should take what the CDC says into consideration, along with other sources and information particular to their situations," Ryan added.

Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease expert at UNC Health, said he understands the frustration over the idea of renewed mask-wearing, but he called the GOP emails "disappointing."

"Nobody I know wants us all to wear masks. Nobody loves wearing a mask," Wohl said.

Health officials are learning more about the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus, which has fueled the recent jump in cases, almost every day, he said, so recommendations are likely to change with that knowledge. But he added that officials know masks work to limit the spread of the virus.

"I think people have high expectations that we know what we're going to do – we have a crystal ball, [and] we always get it right. Science isn't like that, and public health is not like that," he said. "This is a time to let the science rule and not use scare tactics or hyperbole to make people donate to your political cause."

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