TOP SECRET

White House Ordered Health Officials to Classify Top-Level Coronavirus Meetings: Report

The order has reportedly restricted information from the meetings and limited the government’s ability to respond to the outbreak.

Information from dozens of meetings at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the novel coronavirus has been withheld due to a White House order to keep top-level discussions classified, Reuters reported Wednesday. The classified meetings, reportedly held in a high-security room at HHS, has ultimately restricted the scope of the U.S. government’s ability to respond to the novel coronavirus pandemic, officials told the outlet. The National Security Council, which ordered the classification, claims to uphold “the principle of radical transparency,” an NSC spokesman said, according to Reuters. “We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” an official told Reuters. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.” The secretive meetings are in part responsible for the nation’s unclear and delayed response to the outbreak, including widespread testing, officials claimed. However, Vice President Mike Pence, who was appointed to lead the coronavirus task force, said earlier this month that the administration would provide “real-time information in a steady pace and be fully transparent.”