Dr. Paul Alexander, the disgraced Canadian advisor to assistant secretary of public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo, pressured officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to remove references to children in a key CDC report, a move seen as an effort to support President Trump’s push to reopen schools, Politico reports.

Alexander, an unpaid instructor at McMaster University in Canada, had insisted that all reports to be released publicly be approved by him.  For the report in question, Alexander insisted that the CDC remove the word “pediatric” when referring to patients under 21 years old, even though that’s the definition used by the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

The report was released with the title “SARS-CoV-2–Associated Deaths Among Persons Aged <21 Years” instead of the more accurate title “SARS-CoV-2–Associated Deaths Among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults.”  The phrase was also changed throughout the summary of the report.

In a September 11th series of emails, Alexander insisted the CDC report contained “faulty science.”  Multiple officials pointed to Alexander’s interference in crafting and releasing the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports to weaken warnings about the coronavirus and its spread so these independent reports were more in line with Trump’s stated desires.

Under pressure, Alexander left the CDC September 16th.