Exclusive: White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - sources

[Spurminator]

Virtue signaling again?

If you want to call it that, go ahead. It shouldn't be a high bar to expect near universal disgust that this is who we have running the country.

[picnroll]

Trash thinks he can con, lie, distort, hide, as he always entire life, the USA into his unreal Trumpworld fantasy, and he's getting his Exec to play along.

This idiot is so dangerously clueless. Anybody who voted for him should volunteer to be put down for the good of the country in case they’re ever tempted to vote again.

[pgardn]

If you want to call it that, go ahead. It shouldn't be a high bar to expect near universal disgust that this is who we have running the country.

Oh good.

After DMC has diagnosed your virtue signaling he can teach you to be a really bad boy like he is.
Asshole transmission.

[Winehole23]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN20Y2LM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified, an unusual step that has restricted information and hampered the U.S. government’s response to the contagion, according to four Trump administration officials.

The officials said that dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January in a high-security meeting room at the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), a key player in the fight against the coronavirus.

Staffers without security clearances, including government experts, were excluded from the interagency meetings, which included video conference calls, the sources said.

“We had some very critical people who did not have security clearances who could not go,” one official said. “These should not be classified meetings. It was unnecessary.”

The sources said the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.”This came directly from the White House,” one official said.

The White House insistence on secrecy at the nation’s premier public health organization, which has not been previously disclosed, has put a lid on certain information - and potentially delayed the response to the crisis. COVID19, the disease caused by the virus, has killed about 30 people in the United States and infected more than 1,000 people.

HHS oversees a broad range of health agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which among other things is responsible for tracking cases and providing guidance nationally on the outbreaks.

The administration officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said they could not describe the interactions in the meeting room because they were classified.

An NSC spokesman did not respond to questions about the meetings at HHS. But he defended the administration’s transparency across federal agencies and noted that meetings of the administration’s task force on the coronavirus all are unclassified. It was not immediately clear which meetings he was referring to.

“From day one of the response to the coronavirus, NSC has insisted on the principle of radical transparency,” said the spokesman, John Ullyot. He added that the administration “has cut red tape and set the global standard in protecting the American people under President Trump’s leadership.”

A spokeswoman for the HHS, Katherine McKeogh, issued a statement that did not address questions about classified meetings. Using language that echoed the NSC’s, the department said it that it agreed task-force meetings should be unclassified.

Critics have hammered the Trump administration for what they see as a delayed response to coronavirus outbreaks and a lack of transparency, including sidelining experts and providing misleading or incomplete information to the public. State and local officials also have complained of being kept in the dark about essential federal response information.

U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence, the administration’s point person on coronavirus, vowed on March 3 to offer “real-time information in a steady pace and be fully transparent.” The vice president, appointed by President Donald Trump in late February, is holding regular news briefings and also has pledged to rely on expert guidance.

The meetings at HHS were held in a secure area called a “Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility,” or SCIF, according to the administration officials.

SCIFs are usually reserved for intelligence and military operations. Ordinary cell phones and computers can’t be brought into the chambers. HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare or chemical attacks.

A high-level former official who helped address public health outbreaks in the George W. Bush administration said “it’s not normal to classify discussions about a response to a public health crisis.”

Attendees at the meetings included HHS Secretary Alex Azar and his chief of staff Brian Harrison, the officials said. Azar and Harrison resisted the classification of the meetings, the sources said.

HHS did not make Azar or Harrison available for comment.

One of the administration officials told Reuters that when complex issues about a quarantine came up, a high-ranking HHS lawyer with expertise on the issue was not admitted because he did not have the proper security clearance. His input was delayed and offered at an unclassified meeting, the official said.

A fifth source familiar with the meetings said HHS staffers often weren’t informed about coronavirus developments because they didn’t have adequate clearance. He said he was told that the matters were classified “because it had to do with China.”

The coronavirus epidemic originated in China and the administration’s main focus to prevent spread early on was to restrict travel by non-U.S. citizens coming from China and to authorize the quarantine of people entering the United States who may have been exposed to the virus.

One of the administration officials suggested the security clearances for meetings at HHS were imposed not to protect national security but to keep the information within a tight circle, to prevent leaks.

“It seemed to be a tool for the White House - for the NSC - to keep participation in these meetings low,” the official said.

Worked great for the USSR in Chernobyl, right??

Too bad Norway detected it.

[baseline bum]

Worked great for the USSR in Chernobyl, right??

Too bad Norway detected it.

And still having 18,000-20,000 people a night packing arenas to watch NBA games at a time when community spread was clear as day (but not official thanks to government response) reminds me of the Soviets not saying and letting Kiev hold a big parade right after the meltdown at Chernobyl.

[pgardn]

Worked great for the USSR in Chernobyl, right??

Too bad Norway detected it.

Actually it was Belarus first, their own satellite State.
They tried to shut up about 50 scientists but it was too many.

Trump has effectively shut up 50+ senators whenever he wants to, so there’s that.

[picnroll]

The White House scrambles to clarify key details from Trump's speech announcing his coronavirus response

The Trump administration and other officials scrambled to walk back three crucial components of President Donald Trump's nationally-televised address on the US' response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

After Trump announced a 30-day ban on travel from most of Europe to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security clarified that it would exclude US citizens and permanent residents.

Trump also issued a tweet stating that trade of goods between the US and Europe would not be halted after saying the exact opposite in his speech, when he said the ban "will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo but various other things."

A major US health insurance industry group contradicted Trumps' claim that major health insurers would waive co-payments on coronavirus treatments, clarifying the waivers would apply to testing.


https://www.businessinsider.com/whit...esponse-2020-3

Seriously? And Trump’s campaign is to focus on Biden’s questionable mental competence?

[ElNono]

Yeah, it won't even be close to that. Dirty ass China, where people literally live on top of each other, with a population of 1.38 billion, only had 80,790 total cases. That's less than 6% of the population. Of those 80,790 cases, only 3,158 have died. 61,611 have recovered. The spread in China has slowed down significantly.

Here's the stats page:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

This is silly. It's not like the infection just stopped. People that recovered are carriers too, and infections are going to continue in China and elsewhere. Also, 3,158 dead over 80,790 cases is almost 4% fatality rate.

A really, really bad flu season can be as high up as 1%, so yeah, this is pretty bad.

[LkrFan]

This is silly. It's not like the infection just stopped. People that recovered are carriers too, and infections are going to continue in China and elsewhere. Also, 3,158 dead over 80,790 cases is almost 4% fatality rate.

A really, really bad flu season can be as high up as 1%, so yeah, this is pretty bad.

Well said Nono. Truth bombs.

[Winehole23]

Good question

[Winehole23]

If you want to call it that, go ahead. It shouldn't be a high bar to expect near universal disgust that this is who we have running the country.

When I do it it's an opinion, but when you do it, it's virtue signalling.

[DMC]

If you want to call it that, go ahead. It shouldn't be a high bar to expect near universal disgust that this is who we have running the country.

Your fault for putting shebeast against him. Pick your pokemon better.

[DMC]

This is silly. It's not like the infection just stopped. People that recovered are carriers too, and infections are going to continue in China and elsewhere. Also, 3,158 dead over 80,790 cases is almost 4% fatality rate.

A really, really bad flu season can be as high up as 1%, so yeah, this is pretty bad.

Do you know people who died of the flu?

[Winehole23]

Do you know people who died of the flu?

Many people do? What's your point?

[boutons_deux]

A really, really bad flu season can be as high up as 1%, so yeah, this is pretty bad.

20%+ for people 80+

Tired of care-taking grandma? infect her with covid-19, which is Paul Gosar/AZ solution for 86-years-old Notorious RBG

[Spurminator]

Your fault for putting shebeast against him. Pick your pokemon better.

I didn't put anyone against him.

[Will Hunting]

Good question

Seems like his beloved private healthcare can’t adequately respond to coronavirus with getting gubbamint help.

[ChumpDumper]

Seems like his beloved private healthcare can’t adequately respond to coronavirus with getting gubbamint help.

[Winehole23]

Seems like his beloved private healthcare can’t adequately respond to coronavirus with getting gubbamint help.

We'll need to do more than pray to the hidden hand. To ramp up production of testing kits might get nationalized.

[Will Hunting]

We'll need to do more than pray to the hidden hand. To ramp up production of testing kits might get nationalized.

I think Little Ben needs to pull himself up by his boot straps and quit expecting coronavirus testing welfare.

[Winehole23]

I think Little Ben needs to pull himself up by his boot straps and quit expecting coronavirus testing welfare.

Greedy sick people and other en led snowflakes think they're owed diagnosis and treatment.

What country do they think they're in?

[ElNono]

Do you know people who died of the flu?

I know people who died from pneumonia, which is what happens when the flu gets out of control. Same as this thing.

[ElNono]

I think Little Ben needs to pull himself up by his boot straps and quit expecting coronavirus testing welfare.

Thoughts and prayers for Little Ben, tbh

[Spurminator]

If you want to call it that, go ahead. It shouldn't be a high bar to expect near universal disgust that this is who we have running the country.