Azar’s Early Stumbles Over Pandemic Severity, Testing Access Have Effectively Sidelined Him In Fight
Media outlets take a look at HHS Secretary Alex Azar's early role in the pandemic efforts, and how his missteps still haunt him. Meanwhile, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, is still in charge of the emergency-response supply chain despite his lack of experience and outcries from states about how poorly it's being run. And the rest of the world watches in saddened disbelief as America, once looked at as a global leader, crumbles beneath the weight of the virus.
On Jan. 29, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told President Trump the coronavirus epidemic was under control. The U.S. government had never mounted a better interagency response to a crisis, Mr. Azar told the president in a meeting held eight days after the U.S. announced its first case, according to administration officials. At the time, the administrations focus was on containing the virus. (Ballhaus and Armour, 4/22)
On January 21, the day the first U.S. case of coronavirus was reported, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services appeared on Fox News to report the latest on the disease as it ravaged China. Alex Azar, a 52-year-old lawyer and former drug industry executive, assured Americans the U.S. government was prepared. ... Azars initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he underestimated the pandemics severity. He also overestimated his agencys preparedness. (Roston and Taylor, 4/22)
On April 2, Jared Kushner uncharacteristically took to the podium to speak at the White Houses daily coronavirus briefing. Hed been given the task, he said, of assisting Vice President Mike Pences Coronavirus Task Force with supply chain issues. The president, Kushner said, wanted us to make sure we think outside the box, make sure were finding all the best thinkers in the country, making sure were getting all the best ideas, and that were doing everything possible to make sure that we can keep Americans safe. That very day, he said, President Donald Trump told him that he was hearing from friends of his in New York that the New York public hospital system was running low on critical supply. (Bernstein, 4/22)
As images of Americas overwhelmed hospital wards and snaking jobless lines have flickered across the world, people on the European side of the Atlantic are looking at the richest and most powerful nation in the world with disbelief. When people see these pictures of New York City they say, How can this happen? How is this possible? said Henrik Enderlein, president of the Berlin-based Hertie School, a university focused on public policy. We are all stunned. Look at the jobless lines. Twenty-two million, he added. I feel a desperate sadness, said Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European history at Oxford University and a lifelong and ardent Atlanticist. (Bennhold, 4/23)
