No shock here, the entire point was to go around CDC so there was no reason to discuss it with them. This is something that Biden will reverse pronto, his administration will come in geared up to take on the pandemic the way it should have been from the beginning. And, hopefully, there will be a real investigation into how a firm with no real basis for taking this on was given the task, despite the CDC being the gold standard for doing it…if they really are cooking the books then someone will squeal about it to save their ass.
It’s still amazing to me that all Trump and Republicans had to do was manage the pandemic the way any administration would have (i.e. leave it to the scientists) and they would be gliding to victory in November after showing such “leadership”. I guess they have sucked up their propaganda so much that they figure they really do know better than the scientists…too bad Americans are dying to prove them wrong.