U.S. workers without protective gear assisted coronavirus evacuees, HHS whistleblower says

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.

The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, who is a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.

The whistleblower is seeking federal protection because she alleges she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated.

The whistleblower has decades of experience in the field, received two HHS department awards from Azar last year, and has received the highest performance evaluations, her lawyers said.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/27/us-workers-without-protective-gear-assisted-coronavirus-evacuees-hhs-whistleblower-says/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[LiberalArkie]

1. The workers were probably just contractors hired for the job from a day labor place

[rzemanfl]

2. Typical Drumpfist response to criticism. Terminate. n/t

Last edited Thu Feb 27, 2020, 06:10 PM - Edit history (1)

[MontanaMama]

3. Amateurs.

How embarrassing.

[iluvtennis]

13. +++ agree.

[dewsgirl]

4. This is going worse than I imagined.😳

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. Has this message been cleared? NT

[SunSeeker]

7. Right? Mother is going to be angry.

[SunSeeker]

6. That's got to be how the Nor. Cal. woman's "community transmission" of Covid-19 happened.

The two hospitals where the woman was are in Solano County, home to Travis Air Force Base, where hundreds of Americans repatriated from China and others brought home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been kept in quarantine. Many of them have been released. Travis Air Force Base, where hundreds of Americans repatriated from China and others brought home from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been kept in quarantine. Many of them have been released. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/northern-californian-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-in-first-us-case-with-no-link-to-foreign-travel/2020/02/26/b2088840-58fb-11ea-9000-f3cffee23036_story.html

About 14 personnel from the Administration for Children and Families, or ACF, were sent to March Air Force base in Riverside County, Calif., and another team of about 13 ACF personnel were sent to Travis Air Force in Fairfield, Calif., according to the complaint and the whistleblower’s lawyer, Ari Wilkenfeld. Several people within HHS voiced objection to sending the ACF personnel to receive passengers, according to a person familiar with the conversations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/02/27/us-workers-without-protective-gear-assisted-coronavirus-evacuees-hhs-whistleblower-says/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

There is no doubt in my mind others in Northern California were infected. That woman can't be the only one.

[turbinetree]

8. Thank you for the information whistleblower.......................you are a patriot

[SunSeeker]

9. This is because Trump disbanded the pandemic response team.

We simple were not ready for this.

[Warpy]

10. That might explain the person in CA with no known contact

People apparently start shedding virus before they show any symptoms. Some might not show symptoms at all, or blow them off as something else.

[nitpicker]

11. My thought exactly

[Warpy]

15. Now 8400 people are being monitored

If this is spreading the way I think it is, it could have been on money or anything else an exposed person who isn't feverish but has a little tickle in his throat could have touched. Apparently people who aren't yet showing the full symptoms are contagious.

[Blue_Tires]

12. Greenwald and Snowden were unavailable for comment

[MyOwnPeace]

14. I'm sure the Republicans will snap into action!

We'll know who that whistleblower is in no time - and then we'll find out who is a real American!