Ask Donald Trump about any issue, and he’ll tell you his TV ratings. Trump is far more concerned about the way something plays in the media than he is about the reality on the ground. Which is why, in the latest compound screw-up over the approval of the use of convalescent plasma over the unanimous advice of a panel of medical experts, the only two people to lose their jobs are a pair of PR experts from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The approval of the use of plasma isn’t as egregious as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) actions in rolling back testing, and it’s a long way from Trump pushing hydroxychloroquine or the medical stylings of Dr. My Pillow Guy. But on Aug. 19, a panel of experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, recommended that a hold be placed on expanding the use of blood plasma as a COVID-19 treatment after the data from the largest study to date was described as “weak.” That study lacked the data to really say whether or not plasma had value in protecting patients infected with COVID-19, but just two days later the FDA surprised everyone with Commissioner Stephen Hahn standing with Donald Trump at a Sunday afternoon press conference to announce that the FDA was giving plasma the green flag. Trump described the treatment in glowing terms as “a historic breakthrough.” Three days later Hahn was backpedaling hard as he admitted that criticism of his statements at that conference was “entirely justified.”
And now it looks like Hahn’s correcting himself has cost two other people their jobs … because the only thing unacceptable in the Trump White House is ever admitting a mistake.
As The New York Times reports, the two people losing their jobs over this no-yes-no-who-knows decision are freshly installed FDA spokesperson Emily Miller and consultant Wayne Pines. It was Pines who apparently passed along word that Hahn had overstated the benefits of plasma—giving out numbers that grossly inflated the results seen in the latest study—and that the data needed to be corrected.
Hahn’s efforts to correct the statement then ended up triggering a pitched battle between the FDA and its parent department, Health and Human Services (HHS). Miller, who had only been at the FDA for 11 days, was apparently caught in the crossfire. (Though her previous position as the communications director for Ted Cruz’s reelection campaign tends to diminish sympathy over her ouster.) It’s not clear who exactly pulled the plug on Miller, though it was Hahn who announced her departure, not the White House.
In the early months of the pandemic, the FDA had been looked at as a fairly apolitical player in the whole crisis. However, even though the agency dropped some of the regulations required in less dire circumstances and provided emergency use authorizations for the use of Trump’s favorite, hydroxychloroquine, it has been regarded by many on the right as “an obstacle” to the kind of miracle solution Trump desires. That feeling increased after trials indicated no effectiveness from hydroxychloroquine and the FDA withdrew its EUA.
Just days before the agency unexpectedly allowed expanded use of plasma, Trump maligned the FDA, suggesting that people there were part of the “deep state” and that the agency was trying to delay possible cures for COVID-19 until after the election. The close coincidence of these statements and the FDA approval on plasma certainly made it seem like Hahn—like his counterpart Robert Redfield at the CDC—had buckled under pressure from Trump and taken a position that was more about politics than sound science.
Harvard University professor Daniel Carpenter described the mishandling of convalescent plasma by saying: “This is a low moment for the F.D.A. in at least a generation. This was a major self-inflicted wound.”
It’s hard for the nation to get healthy when its two most prominent health research organizations have clearly been weakened. Removing some of the PR people may affect messaging, but in terms of results, it certainly has all the appearance of shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.
