Former FDA chief grabs spotlight with coronavirus plans to ‘turn the lights back on’ - The Washington Post

A year after Scott Gottlieb resigned unexpectedly as Food and Drug Administration commissioner to return home to his family in Westport, Conn., he has never been in such demand — advising lawmakers, governors, members of the Trump administration and even the president himself about combating the novel coronavirus.

At a time when many complain about the lack of a federal strategy, Gottlieb and four co-authors have published two detailed road maps on how to navigate the treacherous path back to some semblance of normalcy by emphasizing the 'Three ‘T’s’: testing, contact tracing and treatment.

He serves as an informal adviser to the White House coronavirus task force, which is scrutinizing his plan as it struggles to develop its own long-term strategy.

And he has met with President Trump and his top advisers.

“This is what I have always done,” he said when asked directly about his motivation, noting he has written 80 to 90 opeds for the Wall Street Journal and testified before Congress more than 40 times over the course of his career.

His coronavirus efforts have often — but not always — been welcomed by former Trump administration colleagues.

At times, Trump aides have asked Gottlieb, whose White House allies include presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, to reinforce a message to the president.

Following the president’s widely panned prime-time speech on the crisis on March 11, Trump asked Gottlieb to come to the White House after seeing him on CNBC, according to administration officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the topic.

Before the meeting, officials asked Gottlieb to stress the seriousness of the crisis and to emphasize the importance of social distancing.

“I think that people appreciate his wisdom, it’s another pair of eyes on things,” said a senior administration official involved in the response who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person didn’t have authorization to speak on the topic.

And even as they agree with him on many issues, some question his loyalty when he contradicts Trump publicly on the prospects for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine (Gottlieb thinks the drug will have a marginal effect at best); the adequacy of testing (he says much more needs to be done) and reopening the economy (he doesn’t believe restrictions should be lifted for several weeks).

One senior administration official accused Gottlieb of trying to be a “shadow FDA commissioner,” undermining agency head Stephen Hahn.

“Who is the real FDA leader?” said the official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to talk on the topic.

Gottlieb also has complained to White House officials that the Department of Health and Human Services should have contacted the heads of test manufacturers and laboratory companies months ago to get help in scaling up testing across the country.

Several weeks ago, after talking to Kushner and others, Gottlieb agreed to submit paperwork for a temporary job working with the task force on strategy.

But the paperwork stalled in Vice President Pence’s office, according to administration officials.

Bush administration, Gottlieb worked at the FDA twice.

In 2017, when he was interviewed by the president for the top FDA job, presidential advisers warned him Trump would say he looked too young for the job.

As predicted, Trump said, “Wow, young guy!” when Gottlieb was ushered in.

“He rewrote every single news release, almost from top to bottom,” said an official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly.

Gottlieb regularly spoke to the president about vaccines, seeking to convince Trump of the merits and had a surprising amount of success, administration officials say.

Trump, who had publicly expressed skepticism about vaccines before becoming president, continued to talk to Gottlieb about vaccines even as he departed the agency, officials say.

Gottlieb wanted to make a case about why the shutdown was hurting federal employees and the FDA’s mission, according to a government official who requested anonymity because he didn’t have authority to speak about the topic.

A senior administration official familiar with the situation said that Azar “understood where Gottlieb was coming from but also realized the need for a unified message.”.

The official said Azar thinks highly of Gottlieb and has talked to him about coronavirus strategy.

A plan to defeat the coronavirus emerges, but it’s not from the White House