Trump’s ‘pandemic plan’ was slammed in ‘Crimson Contagion’ wargames report over ‘insufficient preparation and funding’
DONALD Trump's pandemic response plan was slammed in a 2019 report over "insufficient preparation and funding."
The president's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany promoted the plan by waving a binder titled "Pandemic Crisis Action Plan" at reporters on Thursday before Trump visited a medical supply factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
However, McEnany was also holding a post-action report from the "Crimson Contagion" simulation exercise in 2019, which was very critical of the Trump administration's response to a pandemic like COVID-19.
The pandemic playbook, first obtained by the New York Times, tested the actions of the government, 19 federal agencies, 12 states, 74 local health departments, and 87 hospitals during a simulated flu outbreak originating in China.
The news comes as:
- Dr Rick Bright files a whistleblower complaint in May
- Over 36 million Americans are out of work during COVID crisis
- Rapid coronavirus test 'misses half of positive cases'
- Trump says people will have to wait to travel abroad
- Bright testifies and warns of the 'dark winter' ahead
A report produced after the simulation slammed shortfalls like the government's disorganized response, funding issues, and a lack of PPE.
The emergence of the playbook came after Trump insisted he did have an outbreak preparedness plan in place on the same day Dr Rick Bright testified before Congress about the "dark winter" ahead with a coronavirus resurgence looming.
But as outlined in the Crimson Contagion report, plans in 2017 and 2018 "do not outline the organizational structure of the federal government when HHS is designed as the lead federal agency."
It also noted the confusion between federal agencies as they scrambled to mitigate the spread of something as contagious as coronavirus, echoing Dr Rick Bright's congressional testimony as to what happened when the coronavirus pandemic emerged this year.
The report warned that officials weren't sure how they would implement the Defense Production Act to ramp up the production of ventilators and vital equipment.
"There are insufficient funding sources designated for the federal government to use in response to a severe influenza pandemic," it read.
"The current medical countermeasure supply chain and production capacity cannot meet the demands imposed by nations during a global influenza pandemic."
McEnany also held up a copy of a document titled "Playbook for early response to high consequence emergency infectious disease threats and biological incidents," which appeared to be covered in writing.
The document was left for the Trump administration by former President Barack Obama.
She claimed the document was "insufficient."
"The Obama-Biden plan has been referenced," McEnany said. "It was insufficient, wasn't going to work.
"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 McEnany's efforts to show proof of the pandemic plan, specific details were not revealed and she said reporters would get a "full update" on Friday.
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.
"I was wrong," McConnell told Fox News. "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."
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, 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.
The scientist testified before Congress about his experience with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the COVID-19 crisis.
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 that "we are in deep s**t, the world is."
"I began pushing urgently in January along with industry colleagues as well," the axed director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) said.
"Those urges, those alarms were not responded to with action," Bright added."There was no action taken on the urgency to come up with a plan for acquisition of limited doses of remdisivir, nor [to] distribute those limited doses of remdisivir once we had scientific data to help those infected with the virus."
As Bright spoke, Trump slammed him 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" on Twitter.
The president dismissed the doctor's claims again 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.
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 Bright, who has doctoral degree in immunology and worked at BARDA for 25 years before being ousted, said a strategized, centralized, coordinated plan and "proper leadership" was vital early on.
"We've known for some time that our stockpile is insufficient in having personal protective equipment," 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.
Dr Rick Bright
"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.
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 authorization by the FDA.
The Feds have hit back, saying 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 $285,010 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 explained. "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 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."
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, highlighting that "time is running out because the virus is still spreading everywhere and people are getting restless."
Bright said that coupled with a seasonal influenza outbreak, a resurgence "could be devastating."
"If we fail to develop a national coordinated 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 had highlighted that "our window of opportunity is closing.
"If we fail to develop a national coordinated 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 COVID19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system.
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"Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history," he said on the same day news of the "Pandemic Crisis Action Plan" emerged.
He previously said that Azar repeatedly downplayed and ignored his virus warnings.
More than 84,000 Americans have died - one-fourth of global deaths and the world's highest toll, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
