Transparency is “ a matter of public health and saving American lives ”: Adm. Brett Giroir

Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that he wanted to share information about the pandemic and that it should not be a political process.

“I want to be as transparent as possible with everyone, this is not a political issue,” said Giroir. “It’s a matter of public health and saving American lives. And I think there is nothing more important than that.”

President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden prevented the transition process from officially starting. The General Service Administration has yet to “determine” the winner of the election, leaving Biden and his advisers without resources to ensure a smooth transition.

When Martha Raddatz, co-host of “This Week”, asked about the importance of a smooth transition between jurisdictions for pandemic response, Giroir said that while the GSA is in control of the process, “My team , all documents that work for us, we want to be extremely transparent. “

In a separate interview on ‘This Week’, Biden’s COVID-19 Transition Advisory Board member Dr Atul Gawande said the team was ‘ready to go’ and reiterated that a transition is extremely important .

“It is in the nation’s interest that the transition team get the threat assessments … understand the vaccine distribution plans, you need to know where the stocks are, what the condition of the masks and gloves, ”Gawande said. “There is a lot of information to convey. It cannot wait until the last minute. You can hear in Admiral Giroir’s voice the doctors and scientists want to give us this information, it is vital.”

As the coronavirus rages across the country, Giroir also confirmed that the president had not attended a working meeting on the coronavirus for five months, but tried to downplay concerns about the president’s presence, saying that ‘he was regularly briefed by officials who attend briefings more frequently.

“The vice president briefs the president on a daily or almost daily basis about the coronavirus, so I’m not concerned that the president isn’t here,” Giroir told ABC “This Week.” “The vice president is here, Secretary Azar, the leaders there, the scientific community, Dr Birx, Dr Fauci, myself, Dr Hahn, Dr Redfield. We all work and the docs literally work together every day. “

News that Trump had not attended a task force meeting for months was first reported by the Washington Post.

And when asked how the Biden administration would respond to the surge in cases, Gawande said on Sunday that the Biden team did not support a nationwide lockdown, favoring a more targeted approach. Biden adviser Dr Michael Osterholm raised the possibility of a nationwide shutdown four to six weeks earlier this week, but has since revised his comments.

“We can control this,” he said. “The bottom line is understanding what we have learned since we carried out a nationwide lockdown in early April. And is that you can have targeted measures based on wearing the mask, to include large-scale testing, may include dialing capacity restrictions. . And these measures must be taken in a more localized way. “

As for his recommendations on how to slow the spread of the virus, Gawande said that a “clear voice” from above supporting the comprehensive national plan could help make more Americans believe the scientists’ recommendations to prevent the spread of the virus. virus.

“We missed it. It led to public disarray, confusing messages,” he said. “This will change.”

Giroir called on Americans to take basic health precautions – like wearing a mask, which Trump has rarely done in public – and said bars and restaurants will have to close to control this virus.

“When you can’t get away physically, everyone should wear a mask in public spaces. It is absolutely essential. They work. Said Giroir.

“We’re going to have to do things like limit attendance or close bars, close home restaurants, because it’s very important,” he added. “If we do these things, combined with the tests we have, we can flatten the curve. If we don’t do these things, the cases will continue to increase.”

Giroir went on to say on Sunday that news of a potential vaccine that has been shown to be 90% effective is a “game changer”, but the country remains in dire straits.

COVID-19 cases are on the rise across the country, with more than 163,000 new cases identified as of Saturday, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. A record number of people, over 69,000, are hospitalized.

Pfizer, a pharmaceutical company, announced Monday that a COVID-19 vaccine in late-stage trials appears to be 90% effective in early analysis. Assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, David Benkeser, told ABC News it was “about as good as you could hope for at this point.”