Thread by @timkmak

NEW from me: TSA whistleblower alleges "gross mismanagement" at the agency: that it withheld masks for its staff, who became a "significant carrier" for Coronavirus and endangered passengers.

The Office of Special Counsel has ordered an investigation.

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…

TSA federal security director Jay Brainard told NPR that PPE was withheld, that local supervisors were not permitted to mandate masks; and the TSA declined to require that employees change or sanitize gloves between passengers.

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…

"We did not take adequate steps to make sure that we were not becoming... spreaders of the virus ourselves," Jay Brainard says. "I believe absolutely that that contributed to the spread of the coronavirus."

These shortcomings came in March, during busy Spring Break season

NPR obtained an email in which another Federal Security Director asks for permission to provide TSA employees with the N95 masks they had, and was told without explanation that this was not allowed.

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…

Brainard says that even now, the response is lacking.

"The bottom line is the new procedures in place do not adequately address the prevention of the spread of the Coronavirus," he told NPR.

Here are some of the shortcomings, he said:

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…

Last night the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency handling federal whistleblower complaints, said Brainard's allegations were credible & found a "substantial likelihood of wrongdoing."

They ordered a DHS investigation w/results in 60 days

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…

TSA says 695 agency employees have tested positive for the Coronavirus, and five employees have died as a result.

In addition, one screening contractor has died due to COVID-19.

npr.org/2020/06/19/880…