The white house is considering replacing the health minister？ The US Department of Health is ＂a mess＂
On the 25th, local time, a number of US media quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the White House was considering replacing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Minister Aza. According to informed sources, the action to replace Aza will depend on US President Trump.
The US media reported that some senior officials’ dissatisfaction with Aza is intensifying. The White House was angry at Aza’s decision to remove vaccine expert Bright, and some White House officials accused Aza of causing long-term chaos in the health sector.
However, the White House denied the report of replacing the health minister. The White House said in a statement, "Any speculation about personnel changes is irresponsible, which will distract the attention of the entire US government in responding to the COVID-19 epidemic."
On the 26th, Trump also responded on social media: "About HHS Minister Aza will be ‘ Dismissed ’ The report is false news. Aza did a great job! "
The controversial assistant who sent away the senior vaccine expert was the "pet keeper"
According to the US "political" news network, there have been discussions about firing Aza in recent months, but it was not until Aza was transferred from Bright, a senior vaccine expert of the Ministry of Health that the White House began to seriously discuss whether to fire Aza.
△ "Political" News Network Report
Recently, the US Department of Health specializes in research and development of institutions that purchase vaccines — — Bright, director of the American Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, was suddenly dismissed and transferred to a lower-level post at the National Institutes of Health.
Aza told Vice President Burns that Bright was not fired, but promoted. In her resignation statement, Bright called it retaliation and said that she would complain to the leadership of the Ministry of Health.
The "political" news network analysis said that the sudden exit of top vaccine expert Bright made the internal chaos of the US Department of Health public.Some officials accused Aza of causing chaos within the Ministry of Health, while others pointed out that Aza’s handling of Bright was a reflection of his poor leadership.
In addition to factional infighting, Aza’s appointment of other officials of the Ministry of Health has also been criticized by the outside world.
Reuters said on the 23rd that in the early stage of the epidemic, Aza excluded the heads of institutions that might play a key role in the fight against the epidemic, including the director of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), from the White House working group on the epidemic. Instead, Aza appointed Brian Harrison, his most trusted assistant and director of the office, as the main coordinator of the Ministry of Health’s response to the epidemic.
Harrison was nicknamed "the pet keeper" by some White House officials and had no formal education in public health, management or medicine. Before joining the Trump administration, he ran a company selling Australian Labrador retrievers. After taking office, he easily replaced officials with rich public health experience and assumed an important role in the epidemic response.
Management failure can not escape the responsibility of poor anti-epidemic
In addition to improper employment, in the face of the spreading epidemic, Aza is hard to blame for the lack of medical supplies and other issues.
At the end of February, an official of the US Department of Health submitted a 24-page report to the Office of the Special Prosecutor, saying that the medical staff sent by the Ministry of Health had direct contact with the isolated people who might be infected with Covid-19 without professional training and protective equipment. The official also said that she was in danger of being fired after raising security concerns to Aza and others.
But Aza said, "Medical staff should not lack personal protective equipment. I have not found any violation of quarantine or isolation regulations."
In addition, Aza’s position on the number of test kits in the United States is also contradictory.
On March 6, Aza said, "There has never been a shortage of test kits. We will conduct more than 1.2 million tests in public health laboratories, private laboratories and commercial laboratories across the United States, and this number will grow rapidly. "
Four days later, when Aza was asked "How many Americans have been tested for the virus" at the White House epidemic briefing, he responded: "I can’t provide specific figures now. We are working with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to establish an IT reporting system, and we will provide you with accurate information when the system is perfect. "
Some officials of the Ministry of Health believe that in the face of the shortage of test kits, Health Minister Aza failed to respond in a timely manner, which led to an increase in confirmed cases to some extent. A White House official accused: "Aza did not make sufficient plans to cope with the rapid development of the epidemic, nor did he coordinate the cooperation between health departments at a critical moment. This is a management failure."
US media: Aza may be the "scapegoat" of Trump administration.
CNN quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that,Trump may be using Aza as a "scapegoat" for government mistakes..
△CNN report
CNN reported that as the head of the White House Covid-19 Response Working Group, Aza lacked communication on key issues, and Trump privately expressed disappointment. Aza also disagreed with Sima Wilma, the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States, and Sima Wilma was an ally of Burns.
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