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April 24, 2020 11:40 pm
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4DDwuzqlALM/former-labradoodle-breeder-was-tapped-to-lead-us-pandemic-task-force
Former Labradoodle Breeder Was Tapped To Lead US Pandemic Task Force
Aram Roston and Marisa Taylor, reporting for Reuters: 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. "We developed a diagnostic test at the CDC, so we can confirm if somebody has this," Azar said. "We will be spreading that diagnostic around the country so that we are able to do rapid testing on site." While coronavirus in Wuhan, China, was "potentially serious," Azar assured viewers in America, it "was one for which we have a playbook." Azar's initial comments misfired on two fronts. Like many U.S. officials, from President Donald Trump on down, he underestimated the pandemic's severity. He also overestimated his agency's preparedness. As is now widely known, two agencies Azar oversaw as HHS secretary, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, wouldn't come up with viable tests for five and half weeks, even as other countries and the World Health Organization had already prepared their own. Shortly after his televised comments, Azar tapped a trusted aide with minimal public health experience to lead the agency's day-to-day response to COVID-19. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. Five sources say some officials in the White House derisively called him "the dog breeder." Azar's optimistic public pronouncement and choice of an inexperienced manager are emblematic of his agency's oft-troubled response to the crisis. His HHS is a behemoth department, overseeing almost every federal public health agency in the country, with a $1.3 trillion budget that exceeds the gross national product of most countries.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Original Link: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/4DDwuzqlALM/former-labradoodle-breeder-was-tapped-to-lead-us-pandemic-task-force
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