IT's OFFICIAL: HHS KILLS CELEBRITY COVID CAMPAIGN — A senior official told a House watchdog that the administration has scrapped a planned ad campaign featuring celebrities discussing Covid-19, following an internal review prompted by POLITICO stories and Democrats' probes. "The review has been completed," Sarah Arbes, the HHS assistant secretary for legislation, wrote on Friday to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who chairs the House Oversight subcommittee on consumer and economic policy, in a letter shared with POLITICO. "The work with members of the entertainment industry conducted by Atlas Research will not continue and that contract will be canceled." Atlas won a $15 million contract from HHS in August to produce public service announcements with celebrities, with political appointees pushing to get the ads on air. Democrats alleged that the ad push, part of a larger $300 million campaign to "defeat despair" about coronavirus, was an effort to boost perception of Trump's handling of the virus before Election Day. — The Atlas-run campaign never produced a single ad, securing interviews with just three celebrities, all of whom backed out amid scrutiny. HHS' handpicked subcontractor, led by a business partner of HHS spokesperson Michael Caputo and which had never produced a public health campaign, also struggled to make inroads in Hollywood and meet the contract's deadlines. The House Oversight Committee released documents last month that found hundreds of celebrities were vetted for their political views as part of the contract. And career officials also raised concerns that Trump appointees were viewing the planned ad blitz more like a political campaign than a public health effort. — Democrats applauded the administration's decision to cancel the contract, calling it a "thinly-veiled propaganda campaign to try to help President Trump politically." "We are pleased that following our investigation, HHS finally pulled the plug on this corrupt scheme and committed to moving forward with a 'new approach' for educating the American people about the pandemic based on rigorous science and public health principles," House Oversight Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), coronavirus select panel chair Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Krishnamoorthi said in a joint statement. In a statement to POLITICO, Atlas defended its work, pointing to its track record across multiple administrations. "It is unfortunate that the contract was cancelled, as much of the work we were focused on would have been beneficial as the country continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic," the Atlas statement read, in part. "We hope to have another opportunity to serve our fellow citizens by delivering life-saving public health messages in the midst of this unprecedented pandemic." — Meanwhile: A separate $250 million ad campaign with FORS MARSH can move forward, HHS' internal review board determined. House Democrats have spent weeks probing the Fors Marsh contract too but haven't announced any irregularities. "The public health need is urgent," Fors Marsh CEO Ben Garthwaite told POLITICO in a statement. "Our team is working quickly to conduct important market research and develop a comprehensive campaign to reach all Americans with an emphasis on those most affected by COVID-19." — PULSE's questions: Will the $15 million in taxpayer funds awarded to Atlas be recouped? HHS and Atlas didn't respond to those questions. And while the value of public health messaging is clear, why did HHS' sweeping ad campaign follow such an unorthodox path from the start? ' MOST FAVORED NATION' IS IMMINENT — The Trump administration could announce a long-delayed plan to tie U.S. drug prices to an international index as soon as today, POLITICO's Sarah Owermohle and Dan Diamond report. Senior officials worked through the weekend to craft a version of the policy that Trump plans to announce as soon as Wednesday — positioning it as an interim final rule to leapfrog the monthslong process of releasing a draft and gathering public feedback. — It's not targeted at Pfizer, despite talk circulating on K Street that it's Trump's "revenge" on the company, two officials told POLITICO. But it is seen as a bonus that it hits the drug industry after Trump and his advisers contend Pfizer (and Moderna) sat on positive data about vaccines until after Election Day. — And it may be legally DOA, with the White House scrapping a proposed rule last week in favor of what will be an interim final rule. That approach has been panned by health legal experts, who are sure that the rule will be challenged in court on procedural grounds, and even administration officials question the legal justification. "Leaving office and not having time to go through the right process, like a proposed rule, does not an emergency make," said one HHS official who's been briefed on the plan. — But expect Trump to tout it as a drug pricing win. The president promised to lower drug costs in his 2016 campaign, and after four years of oft-frustrated attempts, his administration is trying to put a final stamp on prices before the term is out. THE NEXT VACCINE CHALLENGE: DISTRIBUTION — Trump has pledged to deliver tens of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines to the state s as soon as December — an accomplishment that would mark the beginning of the end for a pandemic that's killed nearly a quarter-million Americans. The only problem: States may not be ready. There are unresolved logistical challenges, little federal guidance about who should be prioritized for vaccination, ongoing technical spats between states and the feds, critical funding shortages and a growing vaccine hesitancy that health officials are still reckoning with, POLITICO's Dan Goldberg and Rachel Roubein report. — No single issue is insurmountable. But taken together, they underscore just how difficult it will be for states to make good on the Trump administration's pledge to have needles in arms within 48 hours of the FDA authorizing a vaccine. "If those vaccines were available today, I'm not confident that we could get even the first batch out," said Barry Bloom, an infectious disease expert and public health professor at Harvard.
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment