President Biden holds his face mask as he delivers remarks on COVID-19, in the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday.

President Biden holds his face mask as he delivers remarks on COVID-19, in the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday. Evan Vucci / AP

Coronavirus Roundup: Biden Promises Vaccine Transparency with States and Localities; White House COVID Team Gives First Briefing 

There's a lot to keep track of. Here’s today’s list of news updates and stories you may have missed.

While giving remarks on his administration’s coronavirus vaccine strategy on Tuesday afternoon, Biden said, “I've said in the past, we want to give credit to everyone involved in this vaccine effort and the prior administration and the science community and the medical sphere” for starting the vaccine program. “But it's also no secret that we have recently discovered, in the final days of the transition—and it wasn't until the final days we got the kind of cooperation we needed—that once we arrived, the vaccine program was in worse shape than we anticipated or expected.” Here are some of the other recent headlines you might have missed. 

Biden announced on Tuesday that he directed the Health and Human Services Department to purchase 200 million more vaccine doses (100 of Moderna’s and 100 of Pfizer’s.) “We expect these additional 200 million doses to be delivered this summer,” he said. “The order—and that increases the total vaccine order in the United States by 50%—[will go] from 400 million ordered to 600 million. This is enough vaccine to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer, beginning of the fall.”

Biden also said his administration is increasing transparency with states, tribes and territories on vaccine distribution. “From this week forward, God willing, we'll ensure [they] will now always have a reliable three-week forecast on what the supply they're going to get,” he stated. “So they'll know, three weeks ahead of time, what's going to be there in the third week.” He signed an executive order requiring the advance notice. 

Moncef Slaoui, co-head of the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” told Science Magazine that “for sure,” President Trump’s refusal to concede the election made it more challenging to brief the incoming administration. “It was at least very, very unfortunate, to use a polite word,” Slaoui said. His resignation will take effect on February 12. “I am very supportive of the new administration,” he said. “I don’t want to turn my back and leave.” 

Biden’s coronavirus team gave its first briefing on Wednesday. Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for the COVID response, said that the administration's goal of administering 1 million vaccine doses a day is the “floor not the ceiling.”

Upon getting sworn in on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a message to staff that “it's an incredible honor to join this team of 84,000 public servants” and praised their work since the start of the pandemic and recession. “Now we must complete the task,” she said. “We must help the American people endure the final months of this pandemic by making sure they have roofs over their head and food on the table. Then, we must assist them in getting back to work safely. But even as we work to recover from this pandemic, we cannot forget about the department’s usual business; the essential work that ranges from overseeing financial markets, to managing the nation’s finances, to strengthening the global economy and fighting illicit finance in partnership with America’s allies.” 

In his first remarks to staff, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Wednesday, “the pandemic has claimed the lives of five State Department Americans and 42 locally employed staff around the world.” He added, “Many more have gotten sick.” 

President Biden will name Susan Orsega, a career-commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service corps, as acting surgeon general, who will be among the first nurses to serve in the role, The Washington Post reported.

An investigation by the Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general and overseen by the Office of Special Counsel, found that “federal officials repeatedly raided a fund earmarked for biomedical research in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic, spending millions of dollars to pay for unrelated salaries, administrative expenses and even the cost of removing office furniture,” The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. This was based on a whistleblower complaint that claimed this occurred from fiscal 2010-2019, spanning both the Obama and Trump administrations. 

Over the last ten years, the Health and Human Services Department has “misappropriated millions of dollars Congress intended to fund vaccine research and emergency preparedness for public health threats like Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19,” the Office of Special Counsel announced on Wednesday. A whistleblower submitted a complaint to OSC, which then referred it to the HHS inspector general for investigation. OSC said: 

“While the report does not contain a specific estimate for total funds misappropriated, it contains evidence that as recently as FY 2019, approximately $25 million was taken from [Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority] programs and improperly provided to [Office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response]. Moreover, from FY 2007 to 2016, ASPR's reporting to Congress failed to account for $517.8 million in administrative expenditures. The report found that ‘ASPR is unable to demonstrate that the[se] BARDA funds were used for their appropriated purposes.’ ” 

The Defense Department gave a status update on Wednesday on COVID-19 travel restrictions at military installations. Restrictions have been lifted at 86 of 231 installations (37%). 

The nonprofit Partnership for Public Service published a report on Wednesday about the government’s resiliency during the pandemic and lessons learned. “We found that the majority of agencies navigated the pandemic effectively, continuing to deliver on their missions amid the uncertainty,” the report said. “The Internal Revenue Service, for example, distributed billions of dollars in stimulus payments to millions of individuals in only two months. The Department of Veterans Affairs handled an almost fifteenfold increase in telehealth appointments for veterans’ physical and mental health services. Other agencies stumbled. Federal public health agencies, for example, struggled to collect and share accurate health care data with states, local governments and private partners. For some agencies, the coronavirus highlighted the challenges already posed by government struggles with antiquated technologies, retention of high performers and cumbersome rules for budgeting and procurement.” 

Upcoming: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, and National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy will hold a press briefing at 12:15 p.m. 

Help us understand the situation better. Are you a federal employee, contractor or military member with information, concerns, etc. about how your agency is handling the coronavirus? Email us at newstips@govexec.com.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.