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Emergent BioSolutions, Hydroxychloroquine, Communications, and the Pandemic in Nursing Homes
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American Oversight’s Covid-19 Oversight Hub 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.
Congressional Hearings
- Wed., May 26: The House Committee on Small Business will hold a hearing to examine the Small Business Administration’s Covid-19 programs. On Fri., May 28, the House Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing to conduct oversight of the SBA. SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman will testify at both hearings.
- Wed., May 26: The House Agriculture Committee will hold a hearing to discuss the future of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program after the pandemic.
- Wed., May 26: The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing on how to build Covid-19 vaccine confidence.
Cases Drop — So Do Vaccination Rates
For the first time since June 2020, the U.S. reported fewer than 30,000 new daily coronavirus cases. Nearly 50 percent of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, but the vaccination rate varies widely by region. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that in the last week, the number of daily coronavirus vaccinations dropped almost 50 percent from its April peak, when more than 3 million vaccine doses were administered every day.
In the States
- As vaccination rates stay low, states are adopting creative strategies to incentivize vaccinations. In New York, Maryland, and Ohio, some or all residents who get vaccinated will be entered in a lottery and have the chance to win a share of millions of dollars.
- Two months ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that contact tracing had “largely been ineffective” in fighting the spread of the coronavirus. But the state has paid more than $66 million to Maximus, a Virginia-based company, to run Florida’s contact tracing effort, which state health officials say has been effective.
Investigating Emergent BioSolutions
Last week, the House Oversight Committee and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released initial findings from their ongoing investigation into Emergent BioSolutions, the company that owns the Baltimore factory where millions of vaccine doses were contaminated in March. The committees found that Emergent's executives received millions in raises and bonuses in February 2021, despite the company having ruined yet more millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines in previous months and despite its failure to address long-standing deficiencies at that same facility. The report also noted that Johnson & Johnson was aware of possible issues at the Baltimore plant, and had noted in June 2020 that contamination-control measures were “deficient.”
When speaking to the subcommittee, Emergent CEO Robert Kramer stated that the company had “made significant progress” on improving production conditions and expected to resume production soon. For the last two weeks, states have not received any supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Since the most recent contamination at the Baltimore plant, Food and Drug Administration inspectors have placed about 70 million more doses on hold.
In the Documents: Hydroxychloroquine Trials
American Oversight published communications from the early weeks of the pandemic in which prominent television hosts Dr. Mehmet Oz and Laura Ingraham requested favors or information about hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug President Donald Trump had promoted as a Covid-19 treatment. The emails, which were also reported on by Endpoint News, showed top federal officials communicating with these media personalities and tracking stories about the lack of evidence of the drug’s coronavirus-related benefits.
Where Is the Money?
- In a new investigation, ProPublica found that 378 Paycheck Protection Program loans, totaling $7 million, were granted to fake business entities.
- BailoutWatch analyzed the spending of fossil fuel companies that received millions in pandemic relief aid, finding that many of those companies cut jobs and gave raises to top executives during the pandemic: 77 firms cut nearly 60,000 jobs in 2020, while receiving a tax bailout of more than $8 billion.
CDC Changes
In recent weeks, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has taken steps to reshape the agency. The changes include creating a clear reporting chain from the CDC’s vaccine task force up to Walensky, as the task force had previously reported to both the CDC director and the White House. As these changes were made, Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s vaccine task force leader, resigned, and Anne Schuchat, the agency’s principal deputy director, announced her retirement.
Walensky’s changes and recent CDC decisions are seen as reinforcing the agency’s independence from the White House. According to Politico, senior White House officials were not informed about the recent change in mask-wearing guidelines for vaccinated people until the morning of the announcement.
Report: Covid-19 in Nursing Homes
The Government Accountability Office analyzed the coronavirus’ impact on 13,380 U.S. nursing homes (out of the roughly 15,000 in the country) and found that 94 percent of these facilities suffered more than one Covid-19 outbreak. About 85 percent of facilities faced outbreaks that stretched for five weeks or longer, and facilities with outbreaks lasting at least five weeks recorded 56 Covid-19 cases on average. To date, Covid-19 has killed more than 132,000 nursing home residents.
Looking Ahead
- Lack of Child Care: Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Tina Smith, and Reps. Katherine Clark, Rosa DeLauro, Sara Jacobs, and Mondaire Jones released a report calling for the investment of $700 billion in child care as the U.S. emerges from the pandemic. The report noted that a quarter of women who became unemployed during the pandemic attributed their unemployment to a lack of child care and a need to reduce their working hours to care for their children.
- Coronavirus Relief Fund: The Treasury Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) published a memorandum detailing “lessons learned” from the OIG's oversight of Coronavirus Relief Fund monies.
Requests to Federal Agencies
- CDC Guidelines: Public Citizen wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and CDC Director Walensky expressing concern about the CDC's recently revised guidance on mask-wearing for fully vaccinated people. Public Citizen urged the CDC to convene an advisory committee to reconsider these changes to the agency's mask guidance, and to ensure that any future loosening of Covid-19 guidelines be examined by such a committee prior to implementation.
- Safety of OPM Personnel: The House Oversight and Reform Committee wrote to Acting Office of Personnel Management Director Kathleen McGettigan urging OPM to place the safety of federal and contractor personnel at the forefront of any discussion related to bringing employees back to physical worksites.
- Support for Foster Care Youth: Thirteen senators wrote to Aysha Schomburg, the associate commissioner of the HHS Children’s Bureau, asking HHS to ensure that youth currently in and transitioning out of the foster care system receive the support and resources they need as they navigate challenges brought by the pandemic.
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