New York Times reprimands reporter for calling for CDC director to resign over coronavirus response

The New York Times has reprimanded a reporter after a CNN appearance in which he expressed his personal view that President Trump was responsible for the coronavirus pandemic and suggested that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director should resign.

The reporter, Donald McNeil Jr., who covers health and science for the newspaper and who has reportedly worked for The Times since 1979, expressed his personal view Tuesday evening with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

“Donald McNeil went too far in expressing his personal views," a Times spokeswoman told news outlets. "His editors have discussed the issue with him to reiterate that his job is to report the facts and not to offer his own opinions. We are confident that his reporting on science and medicine for the Times has been scrupulously fair and accurate."

McNeil called the U.S. response to the pandemic "the president’s fault," before expressing his views about CDC Director Robert Redfield, as reported first by The Washington Post.

"The head of the Chinese CDC was on the phone to Robert Redfield on Jan. 1, again on Jan. 8, and the two agencies were talking on Jan. 19,” McNeil told CNN. “The Chinese had a test on Jan. 13; the Germans had a test on Jan. 16. We fiddled around for two months, we had a test on March 5, and it didn’t work. We didn’t have 10,000 people tested until March 15," he said. "So we lost two months there, and that was because of incompetent leadership at the CDC, I’m sorry to say –  it’s a great agency, but it’s incompetently led, and I think Dr. Redfield should resign."