quote:

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Friday ousted his top spokesperson after only two weeks on the job, a dramatic shake-up of the agency's communications strategy after FDA and its leader were engulfed by controversy related to the coronavirus response.

"Effective immediately, Emily Miller will no longer serve the FDA as the assistant commissioner for media affairs and will no longer be the official spokesperson for the Agency," Hahn wrote in an email to senior leaders that was shared with POLITICO. "I will appoint someone to an acting role in that position in the interim."

Hahn officially removed Miller, a fellow Trump appointee, from her post on Friday morning, ending a tenure that was marked by infighting and a damaging controversy this week over the FDA's emergency authorization of convalescent plasma as a Covid-19 treatment.

Colleagues said that Miller, with no prior medical or science experience, was a bad fit inside an agency rushing to fight a pandemic. "There was an inability to do anything inside the agency," said one health official. "She couldn't even pronounce convalescent plasma."

quote:

Miller’s ouster came shortly after HHS officials separately canceled the contract of consultant Wayne Pines, who had counseled Hahn on communications and had advised him to walk back inaccurate claims about convalescent plasma that he made in a press appearance with Trump on Sunday.

But Hahn’s late-night mea culpa on Monday angered health department officials. After discovering Pines had aided that decision, they began the process of severing his contract, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The removal of Pines was "not routine," said the person, but a specific action driven by frustration over his advice that Hahn apologize.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:
She outlasted Scaramucci by a day....

quote:

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Friday ousted his top spokesperson after only two weeks on the job, a dramatic shake-up of the agency's communications strategy after FDA and its leader were engulfed by controversy related to the coronavirus response.

"Effective immediately, Emily Miller will no longer serve the FDA as the assistant commissioner for media affairs and will no longer be the official spokesperson for the Agency," Hahn wrote in an email to senior leaders that was shared with POLITICO. "I will appoint someone to an acting role in that position in the interim."

Hahn officially removed Miller, a fellow Trump appointee, from her post on Friday morning, ending a tenure that was marked by infighting and a damaging controversy this week over the FDA's emergency authorization of convalescent plasma as a Covid-19 treatment.

Colleagues said that Miller, with no prior medical or science experience, was a bad fit inside an agency rushing to fight a pandemic. "There was an inability to do anything inside the agency," said one health official. "She couldn't even pronounce convalescent plasma."

And an aside....the clown car rolls on....except this isn't funny.

quote:

Miller’s ouster came shortly after HHS officials separately canceled the contract of consultant Wayne Pines, who had counseled Hahn on communications and had advised him to walk back inaccurate claims about convalescent plasma that he made in a press appearance with Trump on Sunday.

But Hahn’s late-night mea culpa on Monday angered health department officials. After discovering Pines had aided that decision, they began the process of severing his contract, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The removal of Pines was "not routine," said the person, but a specific action driven by frustration over his advice that Hahn apologize.

How is the general public going to have any confidence at all in what these agencies have to say with these kinds of things going on?

SMH.

https://www.politico.com/news/...person-leaves-404422