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26 Jan, 4 tweets, 2 min read
SCOOP: Biden is set to a tap a nurse, SUSAN ORSEGA, as acting surgeon general — a role traditionally filled by a doctor. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01…
Biden asked for JEROME ADAMS’ resignation last week, leaving a hole in the surgeon general’s office. washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021…

While VIVEK MURTHY is Biden’s pick as full-time surgeon general, he must be confirmed and his hearings aren’t scheduled yet.
Meanwhile, @JeromeAdamsMD defended doctors’ decisions to stay, not quit Trump’s task force.

“If Dr. Birx or I weren’t there, many medical/ public health conversations would’ve had no input whatsoever from a woman, or a person or color,” Adams writes.

foxnews.com/politics/fauci…
HHS has quietly updated its website to list Orsega as acting surgeon general, confirming WaPo scoop.

Orsega, a rear admiral in the US Public Health Service and a nurse practitioner, previously served as the corps’ chief nurse officer and on NIH Ebola response, among other roles.

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More from @ddiamond

Dan Diamond Profile picture
17 Jan
I wrote one last story for POLITICO, about the crash landing of Operation Warp Speed.

Officials last year hoped it would be the greatest success of the Trump administration. Team Biden has instead deemed it a failure and just announced they’ll rename it.

politico.com/news/2021/01/1…
In interviews last year, officials talked about their optimism that “MP2” (short for “Manhattan Project 2,” an early name for what became Warp Speed) would deliver an end to the pandemic.

And they insisted history would bear them out, even after Trump lost.
Operation Warp Speed clearly achieved some goals — they helped deliver two working vaccines in 2020, an achievement that would’ve been seen as implausible a year ago.

But as problems piled up in recent weeks, officials have started blaming a familiar punching bag: the CDC.
Read 5 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
16 Jan
Reports that Azar resigned effective today are incorrect, multiple people w knowledge of his thinking tell me. Health secretary is staying til Jan 20.
In his Jan. 12 resignation letter, first obtained by @noahweiland, Azar made clear he would stay until the end of administration.
Am also seeing questions “why submit a resignation letter but stay til the last day?”

This is a routine practice of all outgoing administrations, considered part of good governance. politico.com/news/2021/01/0…
Read 4 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
14 Jan
Before the election, Trump promised “incredible” $200 cards for seniors to buy drugs.

“Joe Biden won't be doing this,” Trump claimed.

But officials are now conceding: the cards aren’t going to happen. politico.com/news/2021/01/1…
As drug card questions grew, officials repeatedly claimed the $7.9 billion plan was on track, quoting ambitious timelines to reporters.

The reality: numerous legal and logistical issues still aren’t resolved, with Inauguration Day less than a week away. ImageImage
Medicare chief Seema Verma — who oversees the relevant programs and funds — acknowledged that reality in a @leonardkl scoop today.
Read 4 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
17 Dec 20
I’ve written often on the mismanaged response to COVID-19.

But for this story, I tried to get out of DC and show the collateral damage: how COVID surprised and then devastated a community of Pacific Islanders across the United States.

politico.com/news/magazine/…

(Thread.)
1. The story focuses on people from the Marshall Islands, who I’ve tracked for the past year.

The US used their homeland to test dozens of nuclear bombs; as the islanders resettled in places like Iowa and Arkansas, they were promised Medicaid before Congress yanked it away.
2. You might think you don’t know the Marshallese or their story. But you’ve probably seen footage of their struggles without realizing it.

Here’s video of the Castle Bravo nuclear test in 1954 — which exposed islanders to fallout — and was recycled for movies like Godzilla.
Read 12 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
16 Dec 20
“We want them infected.”

Trump appointee repeatedly urged top health officials to let millions of Americans contract Covid-19. His plan? “Herd immunity,” per a @COVIDOversight probe.

EXCLUSIVE: politico.com/news/2020/12/1…
“Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk….so we use them to develop herd…we want them infected,” Trump appointee PAUL ALEXANDER wrote to health officials in July, one of multiple emails listing demands.
Alexander sent his demands to officials like CDC Director Robert Redfield, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and his boss Michael Caputo — for months.

Alexander was only pushed out of government in September after POLITICO detailed his efforts to muzzle Fauci and edit CDC’s reports.
Read 4 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
10 Dec 20
BREAKING: Robert Redfield told staff to delete an email where Trump appointee attempted to assert control over CDC’s scientific reports, CDC official told Congress this week.
More on what the editor of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports told House investigators this week: politico.com/news/2020/12/1…
A CDC official said staff were instructed to delete an email where a Trump appointee attempted to take control of the agency’s scientific reports.

POLITICO got the email. Read it for yourself. politico.com/f/?id=00000176…
Read 4 tweets

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