Purged watchdog who found 'severe' medical supply shortages persists with 14 ongoing investigations

Kerry Eleveld
and
Daily Kos
28 May 2020

As Donald Trump tries to replace the independent watchdog at the Health and Human Services Department post-haste, she has continued doggedly investigating his endlessly inept handling of the coronavirus.

Christi Grimm, HHS’s principal deputy inspector general, became part of Trump's ongoing inspector general purge after she filed an extensive report in early April documenting "severe shortages" in medical supplies for hospitals battling the pandemic. But on Tuesday, Grimm told the House Oversight Committee that her office was still digging into 14 inquiries related to the Health Department's pandemic response.

“Personally and professionally, I cannot let the idea of providing unpopular information drive decision-making in the work we do,” Grimm told House lawmakers during the remote hearing, according to the Washington Post. “We are operating as we did on May 1,” Grimm said of the date Trump announced a replacement for her. “We are plowing ahead.” Trump's head must be exploding.

Grimm has spent more than two decades working in the Health Department's IG office and, while she awaits a replacement, she and her colleagues apparently continue to review concerns related to the Strategic National Stockpile, testing development by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fast-track approval of independent testing by the Food and Drug Administration, disease spread in nursing homes, the Medicare and Medicaid response, and hospital preparedness.

Let's face it, that's a target-rich environment precisely because the Trump administration screwed up absolutely every aspect of the pandemic response.