This is more evidence of the ineptitude and incompetence of the Trump administration.
Today the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis (Wednesday, December 16, 2020) released a memorandum with shocking findings that “key Administration officials have pursued a deliberate or reckless policy of allowing Americans to be infected with the coronavirus.”
The subcommittee’s report may also be read from this site:
Staff Report re Political Messaging and Herd Immunity
Michael Caputo and POTUS Trump
A key player in this ordeal is Michael Caputo, Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services, who on September 16, 2020 began a two month medical leave of absence. Earlier, he had undergone surgery at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, a week before David DiPietro, a spokesman for the Caputo family, issued a statement on Thursday, September 24, 2020, that following surgery, the Republican political strategist/lobbyist had been diagnosed with “squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat.” Mr. Caputo moved to Russia in 1994 and advised Russian President Boris Yeltsin, his work also included worked for Russian media company Gazprom Media in 2000 where he worked on improving Vladimir Putin‘s image in the U.S.A.
Evidence that the Trump Administration may have deliberately downplayed the severity of the novel coronavirus was discovered in a tranche of emails obtained by the House subcommittee between numerous high-level administration health officials principally involving Caputo’s appointed science advisor Dr. Paul E. Alexander, PhD, a part-time Assistant Professor of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since 2015. Interestingly, Dr. Alexander’s educational pedigree is respectable: A Master’s degree in evidence-based medicine and clinical epidemiology from the University of Oxford and University of Toronto, and a Master’s training in health sciences at York University. In 2015, he received his doctorate from McMaster University in Health Research Methods. The Hamilton Spectator wrote on July 22 that Dr. Alexander “is a decorated academic whose peer-reviewed works have been published more than 60 times — six of which pertain to novel coronavirus research.”
Dr. Alexander actually sought to have COVID-19 run amok among America’s children and teens – and toward that end, advocated that no masks be worn in schools, and was the individual behind the Trump administration’s efforts to censor COVID-19 documents held by the CDC.
The House subcommittee report states in part that,
“Consistent with a“herd immunity” approach, the evidence obtained by the Select Subcommittee shows that Dr. Alexander privately acknowledged to other appointees that “[w]e always knew” that “cases will rise” as a result of the Administration’s policies. Yet even as he advocated for letting the coronavirus spread widely, Dr. Alexander also attempted to pass blame for the Administration’s failure to contain the virus to career scientists and public health officials. He also urged colleagues to suppress scientific information about the risk posed by the virus to minority communities that he admitted was “very accurate”out of concern that it would be “use[d] against the president.””
This is clear-cut evidence that Trump “Administration appointees undermined the nation’s public health response and put American lives at greater risk during the pandemic.”
The report also states that,
“Documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee show that top Trump Administration officials repeatedly communicated about pursuing a dangerous herd immunity strategy as far back as June 2020, despite public denials that the Administration was adopting this approach.”
On July 3, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote to senior officials at HHS, including Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Ryan Murphy, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for Public Health Bill Hall, and Deputy Assistant Secretary and National Spokesperson Caitlin Oakley:
“So the bottom line is if it is more infectiouness [sic] now, the issue is who cares?If it is causing more cases in young, my word is who cares…as long as we make sensible decisions, and protect the elderely [sic] and nursing homes, we must go on with life….who cares if we test more and get more positive tests…”
The following day, July 4, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote to Mr. Caputo and other HHS officials:
“There is no other way, we need to establish herd, and it only comes about allowing the non-high risk groups expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD.We continue the public health message of proper hygiene, hand washing, protecting elderly at your homes and nursing care facilities, social distancing and so on…but we go on and let our societies open up fully NOW. If the hospitalizations occur in young and they get severe illness, then that’s a different story and we will then have a huge mess on our hands and real nightmare. But that is not the case of now.”
In a follow-up message, he explained:
“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected…and recovered…with antibodies….hospitals are NOW geared, PPE in place, ICUs beds are on the ready, doctors and nurses alert, the syndrome is crystalized…etc.
Michael Caputo was appointed by Trump.
Similarly, on July 24, 2020, Dr. Alexander wrote to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn, FDA Associate Commissioner for External Affairs John Wagner, and numerous HHS officials including Mr. Caputo, Mr. Murphy, and Ms. Oakley, suggesting that “it may be that it will be best if we open up and flood the zone and let the kids and young folk get infected” as a strategy to get “natural immunity…natural exposure….”
The next day, Dr. Alexander sent follow-up messages about Read the rest of this entry »
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