Months of clear warnings were ignored, and frontline caregivers battling COVID-19 are paying with their lives
it lacked the budget to build a prototype. Bright, who took over as BARDA director, testified that he was not in the loop on this project his predecessor deemed imperative. “I don’t know what the proposal was,” he told Congress. “The decision to end or continue that project was not brought to me.”
Bright says he brought the impending N95 mask deficit to the attention of Dr. Robert Kadlec, the assistant HHS secretary in charge of preparedness and response, who leads a key department known as ASPR, in a meeting on January 23rd. Kadlec, who had led the Crimson Contagion exercise, paid “short shrift to the concerns,” according to Bright’s whistleblower complaint.
Bowen didn’t stop trying. On January 29th, he emailed top HHS decisionmakers warning that the Chinese were likely to start hoarding N95 supplies: “US hospitals are going to have a very rough time…. A horrible situation will become unbearable.” Within weeks China had, indeed,At a February 7th meeting of senior HHS officials known as the “Disaster Leadership Group,” Bright again attempted to elevate the masks issue, reminding the group of models showing the need “for up to 3.
Only ten days later did the mask issue appear to have risen to any level of urgency within the administration. HHS asked Congress for supplemental funding to prepare for the coronavirus, including funding for N95 masks. But in a symptom of broader disarray, HHS’s top brass couldn’t keep their numbers straight. In senate testimony on February 25th, Secretary Alex Azar cited an administration estimate of needing “.” Days later that estimate had grown more than tenfold.
Finally, on March 4th the administration published a notice that it would be seeking to purchase large quantities of N95 masks. But it wasn’t until
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