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SCOOP, with @NPRDina:

HHS wrested control of COVID data gathering from the CDC, gave it to a private firm w/little to no experience in infection control data.

Among other items our investigation found the firm's CEO had links to Trump Org financiers.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina We linked the CEO of the outside firm that now processes US Covid data to real estate financing firm Cooper Horowitz, which has financed billions of $$ in Trump Organization projects, including Trump Tower Chicago.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina Public records showed that the contract to Teletracking, this firm hospitals must route their COVID data through, was no-bid.

But HHS blamed a 'coding error' and said it was a competitive process.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina HHS claim process for awarding this COVID tracking system was competitive.

We reached out to 20 major competitors in hospital workflow/infection control data space. We couldn't find one that applied. One said it had never even heard of the project.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina Process by which HHS awarded the contract to Teletracking, the outside firm, is also v odd.

They used a BAA, a process is usually used for innovative, scientific projects -- not govt databases. This appears to circumvent normal channels for procurement.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina We also learned that HHS directly reached out to Teletracking by phone about the project -- another unusual wrinkle in the story.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina TeleTracking as a firm just seems to have come out of nowhere.

We couldn't find any evidence they had worked on infection control data before.

And this single contract is ~20x all their previous federal contracts combined.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina The House subcommittee set up to oversee the Coronavirus crisis is now investigating, demanding that TeleTracking provide info on contract/emails/comms with HHS

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
@NPRDina Fundamentals of the story:

In midst of pandemic HHS wrested control of COVID data from CDC, handed it to a private firm w/little to no experience in this area via an unusual/improper contracting process -- and that firm has ties to Trump Org financiers.

npr.org/2020/07/29/896…
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Tim Mak
@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
Read 7 tweets
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Tim Mak
@timkmak
Thread: There's a glaring exception in President Trump's executive order as it relates to chokeholds.

And it's not the one you think.

It's in the way that 'chokeholds' are defined.
A layperson may think chokeholds refer to maneuver in which someone has an arm around your neck to restrain you.

Here is how the executive order lays out the definition.

"a physical maneuver that restricts an individual's ability to breathe for the purposes of incapacitation."
Reducing use of chokeholds that restrict airway does NOT also restrict the use of holds that restrict **blood flow to the brain.**

You might recall that that the lawyer for the police officer who put Eric Garner in a neck restraint insisted it was not a 'chokehold'
Read 11 tweets
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Tim Mak
@timkmak
One is an Army reservist, another formerly enlisted in the Navy, the third formerly enlisted in the Air Force -- and have "self identified as part of the 'Boogaloo' movement," per criminal complaint
Two of them took part in the Open Nevada protest on May 9, 2020.

The two wanted to set off fireworks/smoke bombs to set off confrontation during the next Open Nevada protest.

They were closely observed during the next protest and didn't succeed, per criminal complaint
After the death of George Floyd, some of them discussed plans to firebomb a power substation or a ranger station, per the criminal complaint
Read 4 tweets

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