CDC Quickly Changed Its Guidance On Limiting Choirs At Religious Services UPDATED

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has removed guidance on its website that houses of worship should limit choir activities — advice that was based on evidence that group singing can spread the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The warning was part of new guidance for leaders of faith-based organizations that the CDC had posted last Friday. It stated that they should:

"Consider suspending or at least decreasing use of a choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting, or reciting during services or other programming, if appropriate within the faith tradition. The act of singing may contribute to transmission of COVID-19, possibly through emission of aerosols."

But that wording disappeared over the weekend, apparently because the White House had not approved it. The passage was deleted because it had been published by mistake, according to a federal official, who didn't want to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about the changes.

"CDC posted the wrong version of the guidance," the official told NPR, adding, "The version that is currently up on the website is the version cleared by the White House."

The revised guidance on singing now states only that faith-based organizations should: "Promote social distancing at services and other gatherings, ensuring that clergy, staff, choir, volunteers and attendees at the services follow social distancing, as circumstances and faith traditions allow, to lessen their risk." Read More

Also See:
CDC Removes Suggestion to Limit Singing During Religious Services in Coronavirus Guidelines NEW
White House and CDC Remove Coronavirus Warnings about Choirs in Faith Guidance

The White House's repeated modification of CDC recommendations to serve its political agenda and the increasing subservience of the CDC to the White House should be a major cause of concern for Christians and non-Christians in the midst of serious pandemic. Churches deserve to have the most up-to-date, most accurate information as possible on how to protect themselves and their communities. They should not be misled by recommendations that have been diluted to serve the White House's purposes. If a church becomes the epicenter of a new cluster of COVID-19 cases and deaths in its community and its region, it will receive the brunt of the blame and its public image and the public image of other churches in the community and the region will be adversely affected. Despite what the White House may say, its actions are clearly not pro-church. If the White House was genuinely pro-church, it would issue much more stringent guidelines designed to protect churches and their communities.