The Select Subommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis - it is worse than most of us knew. Paging Drs Atlas, Alexander and Hatfill -your depositions await

Dr Paul Alexander: “small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!”

Background -in March 2021 the Select Subcommittee released a trove of new documents which shed a very bright light on just how onerous and reckless the Trump Administration was. The questionable sole-source contracts. The lack of transparency. The wholesale stonewalling which became emblematic of the Trump Administration, found here

Public Health requires Public Trust

One of the foundational tenants of a robust public health apparatus, requires public policy and both of which require public trust. In order to build public trust, an Administration must be transparent and truthful. No matter how bad the news is, we the people can handle the truth. Think about it, if Donald Trump looked the American people in the eye and just gave it to us straight —telling us to prepare for the worst but also urging us wearing mask, wash our hands, keep a physical distance from others.

I have zero doubt that the American people would have risen to the challenge. We as a Country would have buckled down and in short collectively worked to slow the spread. After all “we are all in this together”—but Trump was/is incapable of being the leader our Country needed. The paradox is the Trump administration will likely go down in our Nation’s history as one of, if not the most corrupt administration in our Country’s history.

As part of the Select Subcommittee’s ongoing investigation, recently obtained additional documents and those documents actually;

“Reveal Top Trump Appointee Flaunted Political Interference, Used Personal Email Accounts for Official Business”

Late last week the Select Subcommittee dispatched a series of letters to the most senior Trump Administration advisors;

• Dr. Scott Atlas

•  Dr. Paul Alexander

• Dr. Steven Hatfill

The Select Subcommittee letters are seeking documents and transcribed interviews regarding their roles in the Trump Administration’s pandemic response.

The Letter to Dr Atlas…

”Documents recently obtained by the Select Subcommittee indicate that you were aware of, and may have participated in, efforts to attack reports issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in order to justify President Trump’s push to reopen.  The investigation has also revealed that you advocated for policies that would allow the virus to spread widely among many Americans…what corrective steps are necessary to control the virus, save American lives, and ensure that similar mistakes can never happen again.”

The Letter to Dr Paul Alexander, reads in part:

Contrary to the previous Administration’s claims that your communications “absolutely did not shape department policy or strategy,” —these documents suggest you had a direct impact on guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In emails to other political appointees, you bragged that CDC reports showed more “good news” about the pandemic following your intervention, stating, “small victory but a victory nonetheless and yippee!!!” You also made extensive use of a private email account in connection with your work for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Res ipsa loquitur…

As previously explained (found here), late last month the Select Subcommittee released new evidence which unquestionably confirmed that the Trump Administration heavily reliable on Dr. Hatfill. Who is an “associate” of Steve Bannon. Additionally Dr Hatfill also acted as an outside advisor to Peter Navarro. Who for what ever reason became one the the most vocal supporters and repeatedly pushed hydroxychloroquine as a “viable” coronavirus treatment. After the unreasonable “loan” (Eastman Kodak), this further put the previous administration into the blinding sunlight of actual and meaningful government oversight.

Further, the newly released documents shed a spotlight on to the questionable and outright improper conduct of Senior Trump Administration officials. Accordingly the past administration one constant: stonewall, obfuscate, equivocate, lie, lie about the lies and then gas light. In the end, companies like Eastman Kodak produced documents and actually answer the questions presented by the Select Subcommittee… Navarro’s early and arguably improper undue political influence directly impacted the fraught negotiations with Eastman Kodak as the “key supplier” contracts¹ on behalf of the federal government.

This is especially pernicious given Kodak attempted to circumvent FDA and HHS safety and regulatory checks & balances, at the peril of public trust and public health. The Trump Administration stood there and lied to all of us. They did so repeatedly and with an unnerving ease. By January 20, 2021 over four hundred thousand Americans lost their lives from COVID-19. This should be the inedible stain and atrocious legacy of the Trump (mal)Administration. More than four hundred thousand American families were irreparably shattered. And yes while it’s unlikely Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Mike Pence or Alex Azar will ever be criminally indicted for their gross criminal negligence. The hundreds of thousands of Americans that died from COVID-19 on their watch is blood on their hands. Trump and his sycophants repeatedly downplayed how deadly COVID-19 was and is. That is an unforgivable sin and a betrayal of public trust.

Here’s the thing about Washington DC -those of us who know what we know — and we don’t pretend to know what we know. The fact is public health is grounded in public trust. Nearly every component of the past administration and their failed COVID-19 testing, tracing, supply chain, PPE, DPA, DOJ Anti-trust waivers - all of it was corrupt. The undue political interference, the lies about the lies —these actions erode public trust. Irrespective of the previous administration’s stonewalling— the DC beast needs to be fed. Ultimately the data/documents will eventually be unearthed and it is typically the Corporations that feed the DC-beast…

Trump Administration’s Outside Advisor Pressured Agencies to Award Lucrative Contracts;

• During negotiations over a powered respirator contract on March 25, 2020, an executive at AirBoss Defense Group (ADG) wrote to FEMA:  “I received a phone call from Mr. Navarro and Dr. Hatfield [sic] telling me that ‘your government appreciates what you can do, and now we need you to trust your government and begin to execute.’ ‘We will get you on contract as quick as we can.  Everything you have requested is ok.’”

• March 31, 2020, FEMA awarded ADG a $96 million sole-source contract.

• on March 31, 2020, Phlow Corporation’s cofounder sent Dr. Hatfill an email regarding negotiations involving a BARDA pharmaceutical contract.  The email, copied to a White House official, thanked Dr. Hatfill for “reaching out to Rick [Bright, then-Director of BARDA] ² to encourage our program and support its quick realization.”

• May 18, 2020, first-time government contractor Phlow was awarded a $354 million no-bid contract by BARDA.

In 2020 I told you repeatedly that things were not well in BARDA-land;

• April 2020 BARDA Twitter-Thread

• April 2020 Follow-Up BARDA Twitter Thread

• April 22, 2020 Hydroxychloroquine Thread -Case Study

• September 2020 Twitter-Thread -Hydroxychloroquine and FDA EUAs gone bad

And because the vast majority of my Twitter research is gone (or is it because wayback machine baby - October 5, 2020 Thread) Notwithstanding it is frustrating because it is like watching a slow moving train wreck that you can see coming some 100+ miles away and then you realized that everything you tweeted about in the Fall of 2020 - turns out fact check true:

Trump Appointees repeatedly and gleefully attacked the science and data within the CDC’s Guidance and Advocated for Dangerous Herd Immunity Strategy - Dr Alexander and Dr Atlas should face a medical ethics board hearing for their unrepentant violation of their Hippocratic oath. Their blatant lies and reckless disinformation and undue political influence likely caused thousands if not tens of thousands of Americans to die from COVID-19. Each of these doctors have so much American blood on their hands.

• September 3, 2020, Dr. Alexander asked Dr. Atlas to draft an op-ed to push back against masking children and closing schools during the pandemic, writing:  “I think a short 400 word op-ed on this will help people push back to school, I do think locking down our kids (and healthy adults) and masking them can dampen their functional immune systems.  Do you think this can be done???”  

• September 8, 2020, Dr. Alexander worked on a draft op-ed under Dr. Atlas’ name advocating for keeping colleges and universities open for in-person learning during the pandemic—contrary to CDC guidance.  The op-ed was published in the New York Post on September 15, and argued that:  “Universities should stay open, even when they see an increase in cases… Yes, cases will increase among young people as they socially interact, but that shouldn’t be a cause for panic.”

• Documents previously obtained by the Select Subcommittee indicated Dr. Atlas and Dr. Alexander played key roles in the promotion of a dangerous herd immunity strategy at the White House. 

So for now I’d BOLO for the Select Committee’s updates and hearings because what the Trump Administration did —there will be accountability— and Alexander, Atlas and Hatfill should probably retain counsel because a price must be paid for what they did.

1. March 20, 2020, Kodak wrote to the White House. In which the company offer assistance in manufacturing chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.  Kodak acknowledged in emails to HHS and FDAthat it lacked the capacity to meet FDA’s requirements for current good manufacturing practices (cGMP) and would “need a waiver from the FDA’s cGMP requirements.” .

2. Dr Bright was right- instead the Trump Administration sought to penalize him for sounding the alarm - see archived Twitter thread because this relates directly to what the Select Subcommittee released