HHS Communications in the Early Days of the Pandemic Part 1

Tara Broido, a deputy director of communications at HHS, sent Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir a Politico article entitled “Number of Confirmed U.S. Coronavirus Cases Spikes to 34." The article quoted Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying “We're not seeing community spread in the United States yet, but it's very possible, even likely that it may eventually happen.”

The Secretary’s Operation Center circulated an email saying that one of the Miramar passengers had tested positive for Covid-19. Susan Orsega forwarded this to Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at HHS, and Sylvia Trent-Adams, the principal deputy assistant secretary for health.

Michael Ettinger, a senior vice president at Henry Schein, emailed HHS Assistant Health Secretary Brett Giroir. In the email, he claimed that testing capacity could be increased to 1 million tests per day by April and he offered Henry Schein's support by later saying, "Henry Schein is prepared to respond to the government's call to action and partner to alleviate the urgent need for wide availability of rapid testing.”

Brett Giroir, the assistant health secretary at HHS, circulated a press release on three patients in Washington state who had tested positive for Covid-19. Girior said, “There is 100% chance that the remaining 50+ all have COVID and that we can expect even more to become ill soon.”

When forwarded an email with the subject line "Governors Request," Keagan Lenihan, FDA chief of staff, said, “We can't give specifics on shortages.”

After an introduction by Giroir, Rick Bright, the former director of BARDA, asked Adimab to submit their information into a portal for the Medical Countermeasure Task Force and connected them with John Tegeris, who led the CoronaWatch program at BARDA.

Ajay Royan, the managing partner of Mithril Capital Management, founded by Peter Thiel, sent an email introducing Adimab, which he describes as "an antibody discovery platform" that helped during the Ebola crisis and wants to be involved in the Covid-19 response.

Michael Callahan, a doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Special Adviser to the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, circulated recommendations for the U.S. federal response to Covid-19 and claimed that ASPR and other federal agencies were suffering from “painful, ineffective, and slow” communication and lack of individual initiative.

Julie Khani, the president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association, emailed Paul Mango, the deputy chief of staff for policy at HHS, with projected supply needs. This was forwarded to Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS.

Although the message is redacted, the subject line of these emails referenced a White House meeting "with potus on ends."

Roman Terril, vice president at Integrated DNA, sent an email with the subject line, “Urgent 40 minute warning from IDT on ability to ship tests-3 day pause likely!!!” to officials at the FDA and CDC.