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18 Apr, 5 tweets, 3 min read
NEW: Rather than get vaccinated, some Americans are buying blank CDC cards — or making their own — to pretend they’ve gotten shots.

Inside the race between scammers and regulators — and how CDC’s decision to use a paper card created openings for fraud. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04…
One eBay user sold more than 100 blank CDC vaccination cards in the past two weeks, including a card obtained by The Post.

The account belongs to a Chicago-area pharmacist, who confirmed it was his account but denied he made the sales.

washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04…
Why paper cards, anyway?

Officials said CDC initially envisioned a comprehensive digital solution to help people track shots (and made no mention of cards), like in these July 2020 slides obtained by The Post — but ran out of time and needed a fail-safe. washingtonpost.com/context/cdc-sl…
Americans who refuse to get shots, and rely on fake vaccine cards instead, “will extend the pandemic, resulting in more people sick and more people dead," said North Carolina attorney general @JoshStein_.

The FBI, Stein and others have vowed to prosecute. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04…
Psaki weighs in: White House “aware” of reported fake-card schemes but is focused on boosting vaccinations (which come with legal, free proof card).

washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04…

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More from @ddiamond

Dan Diamond Profile picture
16 Apr
BREAKING: Biden officials rescind approval for Texas’ Medicaid waiver.

Trump officials approved the $100B-plus plan in last week of administration. Federal officials now say they “materially erred” in giving OK.

washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04…
Then-CMS chief Seema Verma told Texas that the state’s request didn’t need to go through normal rule-making process.

But public health advocates said it was an attempt to lock in Trump-era changes — and that granting Texas a 10-year extension was a gambit to bypass Biden. Image
The reaction from Texas →
Read 4 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
9 Apr
I’ve reported since last year on Trump officials’ efforts to change CDC scientific reports to better align with Trump’s own claims on coronavirus.

Today’s @COVIDOversight release fills in some timeline gaps, and I wanted to flag some key moments in a short thread.
1. Even in covid early days, Trump officials leaned on government experts to change their language and findings.

Trump in April installing longtime ally MICHAEL CAPUTO to oversee HHS comms ramped up those efforts. (Caputo recruited friend PAUL ALEXANDER as a scientific adviser.)
2. Across the summer, Caputo, Alexander and others battled with top doctors, which reporters began to reveal.

@bylenasun @jdawsey1 detailed how Alexander berated then-CDC director Redfield; @owermohle showed Alexander trying to muzzle Fauci from talking about kids’ covid risks.
Read 9 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
15 Mar
About half of GOP voters tell pollsters they don’t want vaccine.

But after two-hour focus group with @FrankLuntz, many hardcore Trump voters changed their mind.

I watched them go from no to yes. Here’s how @DrTomFrieden, @GovChristie and others did it. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/03…
One big takeaway: Trump voters said they didn’t want to hear from politicians, not even Trump.

Kevin McCarthy’s pitch to the voters — including saying he got mad at pharma companies for waiting til after the election — seemed to only boost their doubts.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a widely hailed pro-vaccine ad with former presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton and Carter (but not Trump) was roundly panned by the focus group.

You can watch the Trump voters watching it in real-time and getting frustrated by the message.
Read 6 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
8 Mar
Trump spent months playing down the risk of covid — even after he got sick. Is it such a surprise that so many GOP voters echo his rhetoric and don’t trust the gov’t response?

A short thread on this story. washingtonpost.com/health/2021/03…
First: At least 25% of GOP voters have consistently said 👎 to vax, per @kff polls. kff.org/coronavirus-co…

“The thing that’s most concerning to me right now is that share of ‘definitely not’ is not budging among the public overall, including Republicans,” said @lizhamel.
WHY THE RESISTANCE? — Having talked to GOP voters, some parrot Trump’s claims that covid is “just a flu.”

Others are hyper-vigilant about covid but claim the vax is unnecessary or was developed too fast. Still more cite their own infections and immunity.

There’s no one answer.
Read 6 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
18 Feb
After talking to folks tonight about Biden’s HHS/CMS leadership picks, it’s interesting how his selection of Becerra/Brooks-LaSure is shaping up to be the inverse of the Azar/Verma dynamic, in more ways than one.

A thread for health policy wonks…
washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02…
First, the résumés are kinda inverted. 

Azar — who had been HHS deputy and its top lawyer, plus a pharma president — had prepared for years to run HHS.

Becerra has many defenders, but what he doesn’t have is HHS experience (and relatively little executive experience overall).
It’s the opposite case with Biden/Trump’s CMS picks.

Brooks-LaSure was a well-regarded Obama HHS/CMS veteran who co-led Biden’s HHS transition team.

Verma, meanwhile, was a DC outsider who spent much of her early time at CMS learning programs beyond Medicaid (her specialty).
Read 5 tweets
Dan Diamond Profile picture
12 Feb
Biden moving to wipe out Trump’s Medicaid work requirements on Friday, per draft plan obtained by the Post. washingtonpost.com/health/biden-e… with @goldsteinamy, confirming @adamcancryn’s scoop
The Medicaid work requirements were championed by Trump appointee SEEMA VERMA — even as the pandemic worsened.

Here’s Verma defending the policy at an Aspen Institute talk in October 2020, arguing work requirements could help lift people out of poverty.
But the Biden administration will release its own analysis critical of Trump’s policy, steered by former @HarvardChanSPH standout BEN SOMMERS — one of the nation’s most prominent researchers on Medicaid — two officials told the Post.
Read 4 tweets

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