Alex Azar - Printable Version
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Alex Azar - BostonCard - 04-22-2020
Pretty damning article on the secretary of HHS:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/health-chiefs-early-missteps-set-back-coronavirus-response-11587570514
Quote:WASHINGTON—On Jan. 29, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told President Trump the coronavirus epidemic was under control.
The U.S. government had never mounted a better interagency response to a crisis, Mr. Azar told the president in a meeting held eight days after the U.S. announced its first case, according to administration officials. At the time, the administration’s focus was on containing the virus.
Note that in the timeline in the article, Azar was alerted by CDC on January 3, and on Jan 18 "Azar briefs Trump on virus's potential severity."
BC
RE: Alex Azar - Goose - 04-22-2020
Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence. If by some chance a qualified person is appointed, for sure they will be replaced by the next president. This isn't new. It has always been like this and probably always will be. The history of the US bureaucracy is pockmarked with such people. I just finished reading the book Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. It is about the failure of the US Weather Service to forecast the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. I heartily recommend it. It features characters than can be placed in one-to-one correspondence with current events. Nothing to see here folks.
RE: Alex Azar - cardcrimson - 04-22-2020
(04-22-2020, 09:14 PM)Goose Wrote: Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence. If by some chance a qualified person is appointed, for sure they will be replaced by the next president. This isn't new. It has always been like this and probably always will be. The history of the US bureaucracy is pockmarked with such people. I just finished reading the book Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. It is about the failure of the US Weather Service to forecast the Galveston Hurricane of 1900. I heartily recommend it. It features characters than can be placed in one-to-one correspondence with current events. Nothing to see here folks.Unanimously approved by the Senate. Twice. Stunning given his ties to both the Ukraine and to Brett Kavanaugh. . .
RE: Alex Azar - Mick - 04-22-2020
(04-22-2020, 09:14 PM)Goose Wrote: Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence.
He was the head of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly. Also Dartmouth/Yale trained. You'd hope he'd be a little better at his job.
RE: Alex Azar - burger - 04-22-2020
More incompetence: Azar tasked his Chief of staff with overseeing the virus response initially. That person's job for most of the 2010s was--no joke--breeding Labradoodles. We're being led by ***** morons. I think the Labradoodles would've done a better job than Trump and Azar.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2243CE
RE: Alex Azar - cardcrimson - 04-22-2020
(04-22-2020, 10:25 PM)burger Wrote: More incompetence: Azar tasked his Chief of staff with overseeing the virus response initially. That person's job for most of the 2010s was--no joke--breeding Labradoodles. We're being led by ***** morons. I think the Labradoodles would've done a better job than Trump and Azar.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2243CE
Waiting for the deletion of this post as it has nothing to do with Covid-19. . . .
RE: Alex Azar - 2006alum - 04-22-2020
(04-22-2020, 10:40 PM)cardcrimson Wrote:(04-22-2020, 10:25 PM)burger Wrote: More incompetence: Azar tasked his Chief of staff with overseeing the virus response initially. That person's job for most of the 2010s was--no joke--breeding Labradoodles. We're being led by ***** morons. I think the Labradoodles would've done a better job than Trump and Azar.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKCN2243CE
Waiting for the deletion of this post as it has nothing to do with Covid-19. . . .
More reading comprehension failure. “overseeing the virus response” literally in the post.
RE: Alex Azar - Goose - 04-23-2020
(04-22-2020, 09:48 PM)Mick Wrote:Yale trained as a lawyer. Was a lobbyist for Lily before becoming head of Lily USA. Had the top job for five years. My belief is that a robot could be the head of Lily USA and most similar companies. Unless one can name some major accomplishments of his tenure it means little. All that is necessary is to make no large errors that can be traced back to you. However, that doesn't give me any confidence he has the ability to represent technically difficult information to his superiors or to lead an organization that needs to do anything more than just what they did yesterday. In most cases, the director of HHS can be a cipher without doing great harm. It may not do great things, but it won't matter. However, when the time comes we need great things there, having a Yale lawyer who hasn't ever really demonstrated great technical acumen or great leadership ability isn't going to cut it.(04-22-2020, 09:14 PM)Goose Wrote: Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence.
He was the head of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly. Also Dartmouth/Yale trained. You'd hope he'd be a little better at his job.
Azar is not atypical. A large number of undersecretaries of this and that have similar careers. They are in fact "political" appointments. This is true of both parties and all presidents. It pretty much ensures mediocre performance of our government agencies. I am sure almost all of these people are smart and have talents. However, great competence in the function of their department and/or great leadership skills usually aren't among those talents. Knowing how to work the "system" is.
RE: Alex Azar - BostonCard - 04-27-2020
Heck of a job, Alex...
https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/fiercepharmapolitics-trump-denies-considering-removal-hhs-chief-azar
Though with this president, any one person's job security is secure only as long as it takes the president to compose a tweet.
BC
RE: Alex Azar - 82 Card - 04-28-2020
(04-22-2020, 09:48 PM)Mick Wrote:(04-22-2020, 09:14 PM)Goose Wrote: Azar is a bureaucrat. He is a lawyer, not a scientist or an great corporate leader. Like essentially all heads of Federal agencies he is qualified for his job by politics, not by competence.
He was the head of Lilly USA, the largest division of Eli Lilly. Also Dartmouth/Yale trained. You'd hope he'd be a little better at his job.
Depends on what his job is. If the goal is to discredit and disable government at any cost so Eli Lilly, et al. can do whatever they want, he's doing a real bang-up job.
RE: Alex Azar - akiddoc - 04-29-2020
(04-22-2020, 06:44 PM)BostonCard Wrote: Pretty damning article on the secretary of HHS:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/health-chiefs-early-missteps-set-back-coronavirus-response-11587570514
Quote:WASHINGTON—On Jan. 29, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told President Trump the coronavirus epidemic was under control.
The U.S. government had never mounted a better interagency response to a crisis, Mr. Azar told the president in a meeting held eight days after the U.S. announced its first case, according to administration officials. At the time, the administration’s focus was on containing the virus.
Note that in the timeline in the article, Azar was alerted by CDC on January 3, and on Jan 18 "Azar briefs Trump on virus's potential severity."
BC
The WSJ would like to deflect the blame on Trump to Azar.
More palace intrigue:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/donald-trump-jared-kushners-two-months-of-magical-thinking
RE: Alex Azar - OutsiderFan - 04-29-2020
Real journalists must ask one simple question to every one who enables and apologizes for POTUS, including the man himself.
What is the POTUS responsible for, exactly?
RE: Alex Azar - Farm93 - 04-29-2020
(04-29-2020, 04:09 AM)OutsiderFan Wrote: Real journalists must ask one simple question to every one who enables and apologizes for POTUS, including the man himself.Those that work for POTUS (think Birx and Fauci) believe that the best way to serve the country is to walk a very fine line. Try to keep POTUS45 happy while simultaneously doing their job. It is a dance that should not need to happen for an issue like this, but it is very clear that's the deal.
What is the POTUS responsible for, exactly?
On Thursday you could see the tension in Dr. Birx. You could visibly see she did not want to be in that discussion on light, heat or poison as therapies to research.
It must be very hard to sit there for hours every day when at any moment you might need to come up with clever and evasive answers to really odd questions.
RE: Alex Azar - ChicagoCard - 04-30-2020
I agree with the previous post, and think this dissenting view is basically puritanical hogwash...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/30/dr-deborah-birx-coronavirus-taskforce-trump