He and his staff had already created their own test, based on the test created by the World Health Organization, and so they didn’t require the CDC’s help, merely its approval. The CDC sent one of its epidemiologists to visit James Lawler. At the end of the meeting, the guy said he needed to check with Atlanta. “The next day I get this panicked call from him,” said Lawler. “It’s gone all the way up to [CDC director Robert] Redfield. He said, ‘You can’t do it!’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said I would be ‘doing research on imprisoned persons.’ ” Never mind that every single one of the fifty-seven
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