House COVID panel invites departing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to testify

The House panel investigating the COVID-19 pandemic demanded on Monday that departing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky testify before lawmakers about the influence nongovernmental groups, such as teachers unions, had on school closures during the pandemic. 

Walensky, who announced earlier this month that she would be stepping down as CDC director on June 30, has been accused of letting the American Federation of Teachers suggest language for guidelines that kept schools closed for in-person learning months after studies showed children were at low risk of transmitting the virus in classes.

“Impending departure from federal service does not protect you from accountability,” the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic wrote in a Twitter post on Monday, announcing Walensky’s invitation to sit before the panel on June 13.

Rep. Brad Wenstrup, chair of the subcommittee, said in his letter to Walensky that a March request from the panel seeking documents related to the crafting of the CDC’s February 2021 “Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention” memo has been ignored. 

“Two months later, you have yet to produce a single responsive document,” Wenstrup (R-Ohio) wrote.

The chairman also called for Walkensky to preserve all electronic records of her communications with AFT President Randi Weingarten regarding the school reopening memo, citing April testimony from Weingarten in which the union leader revealed that she has the CDC director’s “direct number.” 

The letter is a voluntary request for an interview, though the subcommittee has subpoena power.

In March, Wenstrup expressed concern that the AFT –  the second-largest teachers union in the US and one of the Democratic Party’s most reliable donors – unduly influenced the CDC’s scientific guidance.

Wenstrup noted the possibility that the Biden administration prioritized “teacher unions over students” when weighing whether to reopen shuttered schools.

The CDC’s published guidance on Feb. 12, 2021 advised keeping students locked out of classrooms in more than 90% of US counties — despite it being “contrary to the prevailing science” at the time, according to Wenstrup.

In May 2021, The Post reported on the powerful AFT’s full-court press as the CDC drafted its February guidelines — which put the brakes on a full reopening of in-person learning for students.

Emails from that period show a flurry of activity among Walensky, her top advisers and AFT officials — with even the White House getting looped in — just days before the consequential school reopening guidance.