STAT News reports:
Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall — despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation.
The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with legislators.
Without the extra money, states spent last October and November rationing the small pot of federal dollars they had been given. And when vaccines began shipping in December, states seemed woefully underprepared.
Read the full article.
SCOOP: Trump officials spent the fall actively lobbying Congress not to give states the money health officials insisted they need to vaccine some 300 million Americans. At that time the Trump admin had only provided states $200 million. (Thread) https://t.co/u3ZiUuoqfE
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021
Trump officials have insisted publicly that states wouldn’t need much money for the vaccine effort, but as I show here: The Trump administration wasn’t just dismissing states’ concerns, it was actively undermining their efforts to get more money from Congress
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021
For some context: The Trump admin was simultaneously spending billions to help drug makers develop these vaccines. They gave Moderna $1 billion alone for clinical trials. States had insisted they needed $8.4 billion for the mass vaccination effort.
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021
I was shocked when I learned this. Turns out, the official at the center of all of this, Paul Mango, wasn’t bashful about his efforts. He insisted states couldn’t justify why they needed more money. He accused them, on the record, of wanting the $ to make up for lost tax revenue
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021
By the way the former CDC director also said states needed roughly $6 billion. Mango told congressional staffers the money wasn’t needed. He also accused CDC of lobbying Congress behind HHS’ back and “trying to help their friends … even though they didn’t have any real plan”
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021
As you’ll see in my story: Both Republican and Dem staffers acknowledged the lobbying and thought it was misguided. Congress eventually allocated states some $4.5 billion, which didn’t get to states until this month. Mango told me Congress “forced” HHS to give states more money.
— Nicholas Florko (@NicholasFlorko) January 31, 2021