Dr. Scott Jensen bashes CDC, says bungled coronavirus response has 'kept us mired down'
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Dr. Scott Jensen, a family physician and Minnesota state senator, criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday, telling "The Ingraham Angle" that people need to look at the organization differently due to its ineffective coronavirus response.
"The CDC has been around since the 1940s and its original intent was to help against malaria. But through steady mission creep, they've become something they were never intended to be," Jensen said. "And for certain, it's a political organization."
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Jensen blamed the CDC for hindering the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic saying they had "bungled the testing right out of the blocks."
"But what was even worse than that was once they realized they bungled it, instead of looking to someone who was already moving forward and getting some help," Jensen said. "Epidemiologist Larry Brilliant made the comment that they should have just swallowed their pride, reached out to Germany and use their testing. But instead, the CDC kept us mired down."
The CDC disclosed Thursday that they are combining the result of viral and antibody coronavirus tests, possibly the skewing the overall positivity rate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Seven weeks ago, we had the CDC mushing things in regards to how to code death certificates and now we find out that, unconscionably, they are mixing serology tests with PCR tests," Jensen said. "And this has no place in their work, because these numbers are driving governors decisions as to closing things down or opening things up to the American people.
"[We] need to draw a line in the sand and say, we're going to have to look at the CDC differently than we have before."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I think they've they've absolutely fractured the trust," Jensen added.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the CDC plans to launch a nationwide study involving more than 300,000 people to track the spread of coronavirus.
Fox News' Kayla Rivas contributed to this report.