House Subcommittee Report Details Pandemic Failures, Lessons Learned

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis discussed their final report highlighting the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, ranging from the need to invest in next-generation vaccines to the importance of tackling misinformation, during a hearing Wednesday.

The report, the culmination of 42 hearings and member briefings, 37 analyses, and testimony from dozens of officials, details the Trump administration’s “failure to recognize and respond to the threat posed by the virus,” and includes dozens of recommendations aimed at preventing future pandemics.

In the 3 years since the pandemic began, more than 100 million Americans have contracted SARS-CoV-2, and over 1 million people have died, said Rep. James “Jim” Clyburn (D-S.C.), chair of the subcommittee, during the hearing.

“This outcome was not inevitable,” he stressed, noting that mortality rates were significantly higher than in countries such as Australia, Germany, and Japan.

The U.S. was hit harder than other countries because its public health infrastructure was “underdeveloped,” Clyburn noted, and because a large swathe of its population — minorities, the elderly, and rural and low-income individuals — were more vulnerable as a result of longstanding health and economic disparities.

“On top of these existing vulnerabilities, the previous administration chose to minimize the coronavirus and discourage proven health measures by undermining the scientists leading the pandemic response,” he added.

Meanwhile, Adm. Brett Giroir, former Assistant Secretary for Health at HHS during the Trump administration, said the report, which was released last week, “ignored many critical questions.”

Slow, Disjointed Response to Viral Threat

The report’s latest findings suggest that the Trump administration was slow to respond to the threat of the “unknown pathogen” back in early 2020.

“The early response was chaotic and reckless, filled with denials, delays, and deceptions from government leaders and others entrusted to protect America,” said Rick Bright, PhD, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, during the hearing.

According to the report, despite CDC scientists’ growing concern over inaccurate reporting on the number of cases out of Wuhan, China — initial case counts were five to seven, when the actual count appeared closer to 27 — and signals that the infection was being transmitted human-to-human, then-CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, made only limited attempts to gain more information.

One of two anonymous CDC medical officers, who screened arriving passengers in airports in January and February 2020, told the subcommittee that they were told by agency officials not to wear personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, gloves, and face shields because “it might cause fear.”

The other officer said he raised concerns that the possibility of asymptomatic spread was not being accounted for in policy, noting that the agency updated its internal guidance, but its “external facing policies remained unchanged” for weeks.

The officer told interviewers that he “felt trapped” because “the data was telling them what it would take to slow the virus and protect the public, but their agency — the global leader in health science — was not acting accordingly.”

The report also described how Jared Kushner, who led the supply chain task force, mishandled the job by recruiting a volunteer staff that lacked any “significant experience in procurement or distribution,” and privileged tips about possible PPE suppliers from political allies over medical professionals.

Giroir blasted the subcommittee’s investigation and report, noting that his 6-hour “interrogation” was focused on “political scapegoating” of the Trump administration, which he called both “unhelpful” and “counterproductive.”

“Does this subcommittee really not believe it is appropriate to learn from the successes and the failures of the Biden administration just as it did from the Trump administration?” he asked.

Among the failures of the Biden administration that he pointed to included the “collapse of the domestic test manufacturing infrastructure in early and mid 2021; the direct editing of official CDC guideline drafts by special interests; FDA’s bypassing its external advisory committees when authorizing boosters, and the subsequent resignation of FDA senior officials,” as well as “the vilification of the unvaccinated and the delay in concluding that natural immunity is at least as protective as vaccine immunity.”

The report also overlooks “key questions” around the origins of the virus, he said. “After probably 20 million worldwide deaths, we need to know where this virus came from, because if we’re going to prevent it in the future, not just rely on all the countermeasures that we have, we have to understand” where it started.

Lessons Learned

While the report names the prior administration’s shortcomings, Clyburn stressed that the subcommittee’s work must be “forward-looking.”

He described some of the report’s recommendations to both prepare for and prevent the next public health emergency, including:

• Invest in next-generation vaccines and therapeutics to respond to future variants and “other unknown pathogens”
• Build more robust supply chains, expand domestic manufacturing, and ensure stockpiles are sufficient
• Enact universal paid sick, medical, and family leave
• Tackle misinformation
• Improve channels to provide loans and financial support to individual Americans during emergencies while preventing fraud and abuse

Witnesses at the hearing also shared their own recommendations.

“To save more lives, we must get more people fully vaccinated [against] COVID and flu, provide clear guidance on testing, wearing a high-quality mask, and staying home when sick,” Bright told the subcommittee. “And we must ensure that all vaccines, drugs, tests, and masks are available, accessible, and free for all Americans.”

Kizzmekia Corbett, PhD, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, called on Congress to “zealously fund research, not only for COVID-19, but all viral and bacterial and other diseases” and to “prioritize development of universal vaccines and novel therapeutics.

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