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Fauci has long-standing relationships with several of Washington’s health policy veterans on Biden’s transition team. But Trump’s refusal to concede the election means officials from the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and NIH cannot legally speak with Biden advisers about vaccine development progress, plans. vaccine distribution or testing capacity – even as coronavirus cases are reaching record levels every day.
As a sign of the difficulty of the next stage of the pandemic, Biden has created a separate transition team to focus on the Covid-19 response in addition to the group asked to manage work within the health department.
This Covid-19 team plans to coordinate efforts within the federal government, people familiar with the decision said, hoping to put in place a comprehensive response long before Biden officially takes office.
Still, there’s little substance the team can do until they’re allowed into those agencies, one person on the team said, because they can’t tell from the outside what issues. she will meet.
“It’s a bit of talking before you go to class,” said the team member. “It’s a bit superficial.”
Health Department officials described a stilted atmosphere this week, with leaders unable to speak freely or plan ahead due to Trump’s refusal to concede the election.
“We had a full board meeting with no recognition of the election, the transition, anything that might change,” said a senior official from an HHS agency. “It was strange.
Three other senior health officials described a similar calm in other agencies, including the FDA. “We are in this phase ‘at the limit’, said one of them. “In the coming weeks, we hope we have better direction as to how this all moves.”
Two separate career officials said that although they had informal conversations with advisers or allies of Biden in the weeks leading up to the election, they had cut off all communication given the uncertainty surrounding the transition.
“We talked about the agency’s issues balancing Covid demands and everything in between,” an official said. “I hope to resume these conversations soon.”
The delay means Biden’s transition team must plan for a crisis response without access to essential non-public information about the country’s supply chains for protective gear and testing supplies – two areas in which suppliers are already warning that they could face shortages again, said Juliette Kayyem, a veteran. from the Obama Transition Team who later joined the Department of Homeland Security.
“These are the dark days ahead and you have a president who has checked at best,” Kayyem said, echoing Biden’s warning that the country must prepare for a “long, dark winter”.
Normally, transition teams set up offices in each branch to update themselves. The President-elect’s team will meet career leaders, ask questions about processes and receive briefings on critical topics.
Biden’s Covid-19 transition team, meanwhile, discussed the need to write an interview guide on what its members should ask career managers when they are finally cleared into employment agencies. health.
“What you can’t say with precision from the outside is what the pictures of career staff look like,” said Kathleen Sebelius, HHS secretary in the Obama administration, who added that the value of Transition periods can be learning who to count within large agencies. “Unless you have people who can also win the hearts and minds of their agencies, mobilize this huge workforce to shift gears and work in a new direction, you really can’t go very far.”
Morale is already low among career staff in health departments, fueled by public criticism of the president and divided with those appointed by Trump over how to communicate science and progress of the coronavirus, several officials said.
An FDA spokesperson said the agency’s nearly 18,000 employees remain focused on their mission, “essentially doubling the agency’s workload,” as it balances the coronavirus efforts and the daily work.
At HHS, Operation Warp Speed’s efforts to accelerate the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines also continue unabated, a spokesperson said. “This process is driven only by science and data and has nothing to do with politics.”
Although less than a week has passed since the election was called for Biden, the president shows no sign of concessions and key officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have doubled down on the idea of a second term in office. Trump.
“We are in the midst of this economic and health crisis and every day wasted is a life lost,” Sebelius said. “This is not about political theater, but about one of the most dangerous times we have ever seen in this country.”
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