Coronavirus: Donald Trump claims he had pandemic plan after whistleblower blasts him
Donald Trump has claimed that he did have a plan to battle coronavirus, despite a whistleblower slamming his lack of action.
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Donald Trump has claimed that he did have a plan to battle coronavirus, despite a whistleblower slamming his lack of action.
Before flying off to a medical supply factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Thursday the President had his press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, show off a binder with the title “Pandemic Crisis Action Plan”, The Sun reports.
The document was left for the Trump administration by former president Barack Obama.
Ms McEnany called the document “insufficient” and slammed presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
She said: “The Obama-Biden plan has been referenced. It was insufficient; wasn’t going to work.”
After referring to the pandemic plan, she said: “Beyond that we did a full exercise on pandemic preparedness in August of last year, and had an entire after action report put together.”
Despite Ms McEnany’s efforts to show proof of the pandemic plan, specific details were not revealed.
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She said: “We’ll have a full update tomorrow for you guys at the briefing, line by line, of how prepared we were for the pandemic.”
On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also walked back on his claims that the Obama administration didn’t leave behind a “game plan” for how to deal with a pandemic.
Mr McConnell told Fox News: “I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan. I clearly made a mistake in that regard.
“As to whether or not the plan was followed and who is the critic and all the rest, I don’t have any observation about that because I don’t know enough about the details of that.”
Mr McConnell’s comments followed an earlier accusation, where he blamed the Obama administration for not leaving behind such guidelines during the 2017 transition between the Obama and Trump presidencies.
Meanwhile, Dr Rick Bright, who claims he was ousted from his government job, said lives were lost due to a three-month delay in coronavirus action by the White House – and said he remembers a blunt conversation he had with a mask maker as a result.
The scientist testified before Congress about his experience with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the COVID-19 crisis.
Dr Bright lambasted the Trump administration’s “absurd” three-month delay in responding to his virus warnings, saying, “I believe lives were lost” as a result.
Describing critical delays, Bright recalled how one mask producer told him in a note: “We are in deep sh*t; the world is.”
During the testimony, Mr Trump slammed Dr Bright as “a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government”.
The axed director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) said: “I began pushing urgently in January along with industry colleagues as well.
“Those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action,” Dr Bright said.
“There was no action taken on the urgency to come up with a plan for acquisition of limited doses of remdesivir, nor (to) distribute those limited doses of remdesivir once we had scientific data to help those infected with the virus.”
But Mr Trump again dismissed his claims during an afternoon press briefing that coincided with the hearing.
“To me he is nothing more than a really unhappy disgruntled person,” the President told reporters.
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The White House has since launched what it calls Operation Warp Speed to quickly produce, distribute and administer a vaccine once it becomes available.
But Dr Bright, who has PhD in immunology and worked at BARDA for 25 years before being ousted, said a strategised, centralised, co-ordinated plan and “proper leadership” was vital early on.
“We’ve known for some time that our stockpile is insufficient in having personal protective equipment,” Dr Bright said. “Once the virus began spreading and became known as a threat, I did feel quite concerned we didn’t have those supplies.”
Those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action.
“Americans deserve the truth,” he said later.
“We have the world’s greatest scientists. Let us speak. Let us lead without fear of retribution.”
The vaccine expert, who was removed from his job in April, said that no action was taken to put a viable plan in place when Secretary Azar and the HHS were briefed on the outbreak in Wuhan.
Dr Bright – who has yet to accept a role at NIH – said officials are already experiencing challenges with limited doses of the recently approved drug, which was given emergency use authorisation by the FDA.
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The HHS has hit back, saying Dr Bright has “not yet shown up for work” even though he was on a “taxpayer-funded” medical leave for hypertension but continues to collect his $US285,010 ($A440,000) salary.
The HHS’ blistering statement argued that his complaint was full of “one-sided arguments and misinformation” on Thursday.
“It has some benefit in people and we have limited doses,” he said. “We have limited doses and we haven’t scaled up production.
“We don’t have a plan on how to fairly and equitably distribute that drug.
“If you can imagine the scenario this fall (autumn) or winter, maybe even early next spring when the vaccine becomes available, there is no one company that can produce for our country or the world; it will be limited supplies.
“We need to have a strategy and plan in place now to make sure we cannot only fill that vaccine, make it, distribute it – but administer it in a fair and equitable plan.”
Dr Bright’s comments come after his whistleblower complaint last week raised concerns about the virus to the Trump administration in January.
In it, he warned this winter will be the “darkest in US history” due to a second wave of the deadly bug.
Today, he echoed those fears. “Time is running out because the virus is still spreading everywhere and people are getting restless,” he said.
And coupled with a seasonal influenza outbreak, Dr Bright said a resurgence “could be devastating”.
“If we fail to develop a national co-ordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities,” he said, when pressed by one congresswoman.
In a prepared three-page testimony, the scientist wrote: “Our window of opportunity is closing.
“If we fail to develop a national co-ordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities,” he said.
“While it is terrifying to acknowledge the extent of the challenge that we currently confront, the undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of the COVID-19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system.
“Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”
He previously said Mr Azar repeatedly downplayed and ignored his virus warnings.
More than 86,000 Americans have died – more than one-quarter of global deaths and the world’s highest toll.
This story first appeared on The Sun and has been republished here with permission
Originally published as Coronavirus: Donald Trump claims he had pandemic plan after whistleblower blasts him
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