Tag: Alex Azar

Trump official slashed salary of newly hired virologist because he was jealous he was making more money

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At a time that Americans needed a smart and stable government, Donald Trump’s COVID-19 Task Force was overwhelmed with petty squabbles.

According to the new book by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, I, Alone Can Fix It, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was preoccupied with the salaries of the people on the task force.

Dr Stephen Hahn, who joined as the FDA commissioner in Dec. 2019, had a morning call with the purpose of “navigating task-force personalities and political land mines.” The last thing anyone wanted was for the typical Trump White House drama to interfere with protecting the country from the impending pandemic. Continue reading.

Vaccine reserve was exhausted when Trump administration vowed to release it, dashing hopes of expanded access

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States were anticipating a windfall after federal officials said they would stop holding back second doses. But the approach had already changed, and no stockpile exists.

When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this weekthat the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses that had been held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available, starting at the end of December, taking second doses for the two-dose regimen directly off the manufacturing line.

Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will remain largely flat, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding access for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others were still in the dark Friday.

Because both of the vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States are two-dose regimens, the Trump administration’s initial policy was to hold back second doses to protect against manufacturing disruptions. But that approach shifted in recent weeks, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. Continue reading.

House panel subpoenas for Azar, Redfield CDC documents

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Top Trump administration health officials were subpoenaed by House Democrats on Monday, after an investigation showed “extensive” political interference with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“Over a period of four months, as coronavirus cases and deaths rose around the country, Trump Administration appointees attempted to alter or block at least 13 scientific reports related to the virus,” the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis said a letter.

The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), said he is seeking full, unredacted documents from Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield, after “HHS has made clear that it will not provide a timely and complete response to the Select Subcommittee’s requests on a voluntary basis.” Continue reading.

Top Official Admits Trump’s Order On Pre-Existing Conditions Is Worthless

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday announced that Donald Trump will sign an executive order declaring that it is the “the policy of the United States” that people with preexisting conditions will be protected.

However, Azar admitted on a call before Trump’s announcement that the order holds no legal weight. As the Daily Beast’s Sam Stein reported, Azar said the executive order would have no affect if the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare and said it is merely a “defined statement of U.S. policy that people with preexisting conditions are protected.”

That policy that protects people with preexisting conditions is Obamacare, which bans insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions. Continue reading.

Before the pandemic, top contractor received billions from government to help prepare the nation for biowarfare

Washington Post logoAs it races to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the Trump administration this month announced that one of its largest pandemic-related contracts would go to a little-known biodefense company named Emergent BioSolutions. “Emergent’s manufacturing capabilities will pave the way,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.

The $628 million deal to help manufacture an eventual vaccine cemented Emergent’s status as the highest-paid and most important contractor to the HHS office responsible for preparing for public health threats and maintaining the government’s stockpile of emergency medical supplies.

Emergent has long been the government’s sole provider of BioThrax, a vaccine for anthrax poisoning. But over the past decade, the company has acquired biodefense competitors and treatments for smallpox, botulism and other threats for which there is no market outside of government. Continue reading.

Trump, Azar rebuke testimony of ousted vaccine official

The Hill logoHealth and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is sharply rebuking remarks from ousted federal vaccine official Rick Bright about the coronavirus response, saying his allegations “do not hold water.”

“Everything he is complaining about was achieved. Everything he talked about was done,” Azar, flanked by President Trump, told reporters on the White House lawn on Thursday before departing for a trip to a medical equipment distributor in Pennsylvania.

Azar sought to counter comments Bright made the same day before House lawmakers, warning of the “darkest winter in modern history” without a national play to fight the pandemic. Continue reading.

Azar faulted workers’ ‘home and social’ conditions for meatpacking outbreaks

On a call with members of Congress, health secretary defended conditions inside the meat plants, three participants say.

The country’s top health official downplayed concerns over the public health conditions inside meatpacking plants, suggesting on a call with lawmakers that workers were more likely to catch coronavirus based on their social interactions and group living situations, three participants said.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar told a bipartisan group that he believed infected employees were bringing the virus into processing plants where a rash of cases have killed at least 20 workers and forced nearly two-dozen plants to close, according to three people on the April 28 call.

Those infections, he said, were linked more to the “home and social” aspects of workers’ lives rather than the conditions inside the facilities, alarming some on the call who interpreted his remarks as faulting workers for the outbreaks, the people said. Continue reading.

Enraged Trump Wanted To Fire CDC Official Who Warned Against Virus

In a deeply reported Wall Street Journal piece on Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis, a bombshell detail buried in the story cast light on President Donald Trump’s own disastrous instincts.

According to the report, Trump wanted to fire Dr. Nancy Messonnier — the official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who first shared the gravity of the pandemic with the American people.

On Feb. 25, after Trump had spent a month downplaying the outbreak and defending China’s honesty in its response, Messonnier sent a clear signal about just how bad things could get. Continue reading.

Top health official admits he has no clue how many Americans have been tested for coronavirus

AlterNet logoHealth and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar added to the long list of worrying or downright scary coronavirus comments from Trump administration officials in a CNN appearance Tuesday morning. Azar admitted to having absolutely no idea how many people have been tested for COVID-19 in the U.S., even as the number confirmed to have the disease keeps growing.

Asked by CNN’s John Berman how many Americans have been tested, Azar responded, “We don’t know exactly how many because hundreds of thousands of our tests have gone out to private labs and hospitals that currently do not report in to CDC.” Doesn’t that seem like something public health officials should have some idea about?

“We’re working with the CDC and those partners to get an IT reporting system up and running, hopefully this week, where we would be able to get that data, to keep track of how many we’re testing,” Azar continued. He suggested that up to 10,000 people a day could be tested now, with the number potentially rising to 20,000 by the end of the week—but that sounded extremely hypothetical and is based on a study by the American Enterprise Institute, not on, say, CDC predictions. Continue reading.

White House sidelines Azar from coronavirus response

HHS Secretary Alex Azar has gone from the face of President Donald Trump’s virus team to a supporting character.

There will be a notable omission when Vice President Mike Pence visits Washington state Thursday as part of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response: health Secretary Alex Azar.

The White House on Wednesday also benched Azar from a coronavirus task force press briefing, the latest sign of diminished standing for an official who was the face of the U.S. response to the disease just a week ago.

Four of Azar’s deputies — including Medicare chief Seema Verma and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Steve Hahn, who were both added to the task force after Pence took over the federal response — joined the vice president and other officials at the White House on Wednesday. Continue reading.