Isaac Stanley-Becker Profile picture
Aug 22, 2021 10 tweets 4 min read Read on X
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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More from @isaacstanbecker

Jul 16, 2023
The Saudis tightly regulate water in the desert nation. So the kingdom’s largest dairy company is using water without restrictions in the American Southwest instead.

Now @katiehobbs staff want her to end part of the deal

w/@partlowj @yvonnewingett wapo.st/3XPR7vD
Arizona passed on an early chance to find out how much water the Saudi company was pumping on state-owned land. For nearly a decade, it was in the dark. Only after the state threatened to cancel Fondomonte's leases last month did the company disclose washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
@krismayes: “We can’t afford to do dumb things with our water anymore. And allowing a Saudi corporation to stick a straw in the ground and pump millions of gallons of water to grow alfalfa for their cows in the Middle East is nothing short of outrageous.” washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/…
Read 4 tweets
Apr 16, 2023
Nikki Haley's campaign touted $11 million raised since she launched in Feb. Saturday's filings show she double-counted across various committees making transfers to one another and only brought in about $5 million into her main campaign committee
Here's how this works:

Haley's joint fundraising cmte brought in $4.8m and sent $1.8m to campaign cmte and another $886k to leadership PAC

Campaign cmte raised $3.3m and took in the $1.8m from the JFC

Leadership PAC raised about $600k and took in the $886k from the JFC
Read 5 tweets
Jan 15, 2023
NEW- George Santos was alerted that his investment firm was using a fake Deutsche Bank document and continued working there for months

That and many other new details on Santos’ tenure at alleged Ponzi scheme in deep dive w/@jocwapo @emmersbrown washingtonpost.com/investigations…
We now know how Santos came to work at Harbor City, at least in his telling. This unusual 4 a.m. email exchange —>
Santos spoke about separating politics and business, saying in a company Zoom meeting in 2020, “I don’t need shiny silver bracelets.”
Read 4 tweets
Dec 2, 2022
Cochise County certifies after court order as attorneys for Lake and Finchem are sanctioned over lawsuit seeking to force hand count.

Among their lawyers: Alan Dershowitz. w/@yvonnewingett washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
Mike Lindell, who financed the failed case that led to the sanctions, told @yvonnewingett this evening that the plaintiffs had “more evidence than any case in history”
Read 5 tweets
Nov 12, 2022
How Kelly's campaign pulled it off—

Hit Masters hard in August, when he was strapped for cash, in a strategy that came to be known internally as the "surge."

Masters' unfavorability ratings jumped from 35 percent to 48 percent in Kelly campaign internals. w/@KnowlesHannah Image
Masters summed up the Dem strategy, saying in an Aug. 19 radio interview: “They’re trying to nuke me, you know, they’re trying to kill the baby in the crib here." washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
And while Kelly's campaign was pummeling Masters on TV, Mitch McConnnell and Peter Thiel were feuding over which one would pick up the tab for Masters washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
Read 4 tweets
Jul 24, 2022
Our story on the Claremont Institute, home to John Eastman. Once marginal, Claremont became Trump’s version of Heritage or AEI for past Republican presidents washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07…
Claremont was founded by students of the conservative political philosopher Harry Jaffa. The think tank’s current leaders still invoke Jaffa a lot

But Jaffa’s son told me his father had harsh words for Claremont, which he said had become “neo-confederate” washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07…
When Claremont alum got invited to join the Trump campaign in 2016, views varied. Darren Beattie was game. Michael Buschbacher, a DC lawyer, said Trump was antithetical to Claremont’s mission.

He later joined the admin and worked for … Jeffrey Clark washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07…
Read 6 tweets

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