Trump admin. overrules CDC director on extending ban on cruises

Enlarge / Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), attends an event about coronavirus vaccine development in the Rose Garden of the White House on May 15, 2020, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty | Drew Angerer)

Trump administration officials have once again sidelined the head of the country's leading public health agency while crafting public health policy. This time, officials torpedoed a plan to extend the no-sail" order on cruise ships until next year.

Cruise ships were initial hotbeds of coronavirus transmission at the start of the global pandemic, which is still far from under control in the United States. Mass outbreaks on the tightly-packed, social vessels forced the cruise industry to shut down in March, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a no-sail order that is set to expire today, Wednesday, September 30.

In a meeting in the White House Situation Room Tuesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield floated a recommendation to extend the no-sail order until February 2021, according to a report by Axios. But Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the meeting, told Redfield that the administration will be setting a different course.

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