NEW- Private consultants took over the vax effort, cost taxpayers millions and demonstrated few results washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08…
Footprint of these firms is stunning. Deloitte worked w 10 states. BCG at least 11 + the feds. BCG and McKinsey also advising global covax effort.
It was BCG, not the feds, that convened states to discuss vax strategy. A BCG consultant called it “therapy.”
Expensive therapy
This is what BCG promised federal health authorities: Centralized infrastructure and accountability mechanisms for vaccine planning.
I asked BCG to provide evidence of those contributions, but the firm said it doesn’t discuss client work
Why did so many states use management consultants not versed in public health?
I obtained hundreds of pages of emails between consultants and health officials and found that concern over the optics of vaccine rankings was a major reason.
One especially stark example: Ohio
Consultants promised to rectify vax allocation issues. But I reviewed a group text among California health officials at their wit’s end about errors they said McKinsey consultants were making
Newsom said he outsourced vax mgmt to Blue Shield, the Oakland-based insurance co, b/c of “equity.”
Everyone I interviewed said Blue Shield’s involvement had a neutral to negative effect on getting doses to the vulnerable.
This builds on great reporting by @MelodyGutierrez
Why did Newsom choose Blue Shield?
He trusts Paul Markovich, the CEO, who also co-chaired the state’s testing task force and is, by all accounts, a really smart guy.
But let’s follow the money…
Blue Shield and its philanthropy have helped fund Newsom’s campaigns and political projects for years, beginning in 2005 when he was mayor of San Francisco and leading up to last year’s $20 million check for the governor’s signature housing initiative
Vax efforts improved nationally, no question, mostly because of expanded supply of doses.
But here’s how a California health official assessed the contributions of consultants - and the state’s broader priorities.
One of the main questions arising from the pandemic is why our government can’t seem to do anything anymore
This is why
fin washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08…
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