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Rising Case Numbers, Vaccine Progress, and the Pandemic in Prisons
In this email:
* Vaccine Candidates Move Forward
* More Transparency Needed on Emergency Use Authorizations 
* As Workers Got Sick, Managers Placed Bets


American Oversight’s Covid-19 Oversight Hub ([link removed]) provides news and policy resources to help you keep track of the investigations into the government’s pandemic response. The project brings together a public documents database, an oversight tracker of important ongoing investigations and litigation, regular news updates, and deeper dives into key issues.

State of the Pandemic
As Thanksgiving approaches, Covid-19 cases continue to rise ([link removed]) in the United States.
* The CDC recommends no Thanksgiving travel. In guidelines ([link removed]) released last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encouraged ([link removed]) all Americans to stay home for Thanksgiving and avoid large indoor gatherings and crowded travel venues. State officials, including the governors ([link removed]) of hotspot Midwestern states, have joined the plea.
* The number of infections is rising everywhere. Unlike in previous surges, the pandemic is now widespread — infections are rising in 83 percent ([link removed]) of U.S. counties. According to a new study ([link removed]) , official numbers may only be part of the story, with up to 3 million Americans possibly having active Covid-19 infections.
* Medical infrastructure is being stretched. As commercial labs reach testing capacities ([link removed]) , state officials are saying ([link removed]) they lack the supplies and the staff to conduct widespread, rapid testing. With hospitalizations reaching record highs ([link removed]) , even the best-prepared hospitals ([link removed]) are struggling with space and staffing limitations.
* Disparate statewide strategies endure. While some states ([link removed]) are imposing mask mandates or stay-at-home orders, others, such as Florida ([link removed]) , refuse to implement any statewide restrictions. Some localities, like New York City ([link removed]) , have closed schools while allowing gyms and restaurants to remain open.


Congressional Investigations
* Potential Fraud in SBA's Coronavirus Relief Programs: Sen. Rick Scott requested ([link removed]) that the GAO provide updates about its review of potential fraud in the Small Business Administration’s Covid-19 relief programs, including the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.
* Challenging Gilead’s High Prices: Six senators requested information ([link removed]) about the Department of Health and Human Services’ pricing negotiations with Gilead Sciences for a large supply of remdesivir. The current arrangement allowed Gilead to charge American health insurers the highest price in the world for the drug, leading to revenues of up to almost half a billion dollars for the company.
* Seeking Federal Contracts for Covid-19 Treatments and Vaccines: Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Katie Porter requested ([link removed]) that HHS, the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency provide information and documents for all federal contracts issued for the development, manufacturing, and distribution of coronavirus treatments and vaccines.


Vaccine Candidates Move Forward
Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted ([link removed]) their vaccine to be considered for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, after a final analysis of clinical data showed ([link removed]) the vaccine is 95 percent effective. The Pfizer vaccine’s ultra-cold storage requirements have raised concerns about distribution challenges, leading the company to start a pilot vaccine delivery program ([link removed]) that will run in states with different sizes and diverse populations.

On Sunday ([link removed]) , Dr. Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation Warp Speed, told ABC News that vaccine doses will be shipped to states within 24 hours of FDA approval and that states will decide how and where to distribute them. The Trump administration has also said 99 percent of nursing homes ([link removed]) have signed up for a program that allows pharmacies to administer Covid-19 vaccines to seniors free of charge.

On Monday ([link removed]) , AstraZeneca became the latest company to announce the results of large-scale vaccine trials, saying that ([link removed]) its coronavirus vaccine is up to 90 percent effective, with an average efficacy of 70 percent. Unlike other candidates, AstraZeneca’s vaccine can be stored and transported in normal refrigerated conditions, making it easier to distribute within existing health-care systems.

Covid-19 Supply Stockpile Data Released
Last week, President-elect Joe Biden claimed that the Trump administration was refusing to share critical information with his team, including data about the medical supplies in the national stockpile. In response, Yahoo News published ([link removed]) stockpile numbers from Nov. 16. Although the numbers of ventilators and N95 respirators increased since the start of the pandemic, they were not as high as the Trump administration promised they would be in September.

BOP’s Mismanagement of the Pandemic
As Covid-19 outbreaks have infected hundreds of incarcerated people in Colorado ([link removed]) , Kentucky ([link removed]) , and Iowa ([link removed]) , new reports and documents shed light on how the Bureau of Prisons has mismanaged the crisis.
* The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General released reports showing that in March and April, two residential reentry centers in Brooklyn, N.Y. ([link removed]) , and Newark, N.J. ([link removed]) , did not conduct effective Covid-19 screening or testing, and delayed providing masks. In Newark, residents did not receive face masks until nearly three weeks after the CDC recommended that all individuals wear cloth face coverings whenever they were unable to maintain distance.
* American Oversight published documents ([link removed]) showing BOP communications from the early months of the pandemic, including a memo instructing facilities to find alternative medicines for incarcerated people who used hydroxychloroquine — the drug dubiously promoted by Trump ([link removed]) as a Covid-19 treatment — to treat long-term conditions like lupus and arthritis. The documents also include a complaint from March about management having refused to provide cleaning supplies to staff.


More Transparency Needed on Emergency Use Authorizations
The Government Accountability Office released a report ([link removed]) on the need for the FDA to disclose more information from its scientific review of safety and effectiveness data when issuing emergency use authorizations for coronavirus treatments and vaccines. The GAO recommended greater transparency, since the FDA does not uniformly disclose its data review for these authorizations as it does for non-emergency approvals of new drugs and biologics.

The Postal Service’s Covid-19 Response
The U.S. Postal Service’s inspector general released a report ([link removed]) identifying three ways the agency's Covid-19 response failed to protect its employees. First, it was unclear whether state mask mandates (or lack thereof) overruled USPS’s face-covering policy, resulting in non-compliance among some employees. Second, the agency's Close Contact Tracing Program did not have adequate staffing or clear goals. Lastly, although the CDC recommended temperature-taking for employees in April, USPS did not deploy temperature-taking within its facilities nationwide.

As Workers Got Sick, Managers Placed Bets
Amid heartbreaking news of record-high hospitalizations and deaths last week, new allegations ([link removed]) surfaced that supervisors at a Tyson Foods plant in Iowa had placed bets on how many workers would get infected with the coronavirus. While managers took measures to protect themselves, by May more than 1,000 employees ([link removed]) in the plant had tested positive for Covid-19. As cases rise rapidly ([link removed]) in Iowa, the plant remains open. We’ve previously reported on records showing how the meatpacking industry influenced ([link removed]) the federal government’s decision to allow plants to stay open in
the spring.

Political Donations Followed PPP Loans
The Project on Government Oversight and the Anti-Corruption Data Collective found ([link removed]) that large political donations flowed from more than a hundred businesses after those companies received Paycheck Protection Program loans, suggesting that many of those loan recipients might not have needed the relief funds meant for struggling small businesses.

Trump Donor Received Pandemic Loan
The Washington Post reported ([link removed]) that Wellshire Financial Services — a company owned by major Trump donor Rod Aycox, which operates auto-title loan stores that sell loans with a 350 percent annual rate — received a $25 million low-interest loan from the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending program. The program’s rules prohibit such lenders from accessing the aid, but advocates say that Wellshire exploited a loophole to secure the funds.
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Thank you again for following our latest news. We are grateful for your support and for helping us hold the administration accountable.

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