Coronavirus Roundup: NIH Says No COVID-19 Drug is Effective Yet, Trump Hotel Puts GSA in Tough Spot By Seeking Break on Payments 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday that a second wave of the coronavirus outbreak could happen next winter and be even worse than this one. When asked about his projections during the briefing on Tuesday evening, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response coordinator, said: “I don’t know if it will be worse. I think this has been pretty bad.” Here are some other recent headlines you might have missed. 

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the first at home coronavirus testing kit. “The FDA’s around-the-clock work since this outbreak began has resulted in the authorization of more than 50 diagnostic tests and engagement with over 350 test developers,” said FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, in a press release. “For tests that include home sample collection, we worked with LabCorp to ensure the data demonstrated from at-home patient sample collection is as safe and accurate as sample collection at a doctor’s office, hospital or other testing site.”

The Veterans Health Administration’s study on the anti-malaria drug (championed by the president) found there was no benefit and, rather, more death among veterans who took it, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday. “Researchers analyzed medical records of 368 male veterans hospitalized with confirmed coronavirus infection at [VHA] medical centers who died or were discharged by April 11,” said the AP. “About 28% who were given hydroxychloroquine plus usual care died, versus 11% of those getting routine care alone.”

The National Institutes of Health released new coronavirus treatment guidelines on Tuesday, which said: “At present, no drug has been proven to be safe and effective for treating COVID-19.” This is due to “insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of any antiviral or immunomodulatory therapy in patients with COVID-19 who have mild, moderate, severe or critical illness.” 

In the interview with The Washington Post, Redfield said a much bigger workforce is needed for the pandemic response. “The agency is talking with state officials about the possibility of using Census Bureau workers and Peace Corps and AmeriCorps volunteers to build ‘an alternative workforce,’” the paper reported. 

The head of the agency that is central to vaccine development left his role, Stat News reported on Tuesday. It is not clear why Dr. Rick Bright departed his role from director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority or whose decision it was. He will now work at the National Institutes of Health on the new public-private partnership for diagnostics, according to CNN. 

U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt sailors continue to test positive for coronavirus, so the Navy is delaying moving them back on board after docking in Guam on March 27, Politico reported on Tuesday. “Results of out-testing portions of the [Theodore Roosevelt] crew following 14 days of quarantine leads us to reevaluate our assessment of how the virus can remain active in an asymptomatic host,” according to a Navy directive obtained by Politico. 

The Defense Department outlined how it will spend $133 million to increase domestic N95 mask production by over 39 million masks over the next 90 days. “Three companies were awarded contracts: 3M ($76 million), O&M Halyward ($29 million) and Honeywell ($27.4 million),” said Lt. Col. Mike Andrews, Defense spokesman, in a statement. “The increased production will ensure the U.S. government gets dedicated long term industrial capacity to meet the needs of the nation.”

The Marine Corps canceled its semi-annual fitness test requirements due to pandemic disruptions, Task and Purpose reported on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, the Marines are still required to get their regular haircuts, despite social distancing concerns. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote to Gen. David Berger, Marine Corps commandant, on Tuesday asking him to relax grooming standards temporarily. “This matter has been raised with me by families of a number of Marines and I am persuaded that they have a compelling point,” he wrote. 

The Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which is in a federal building leased by the General Services Administration, is asking for a break on its payments due to the pandemic, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. The president still owns the Trump Organization, but his sons run the daily operations. The request is a “particular predicament” because “if [GSA] denies the request, the agency risks running afoul of the president, who appoints its leader; but if it accommodates the Trumps, the agency is likely to draw fire from critics,” said The New York Times. 

Some Federal Emergency Management Agency employees have raised concerns about the private sector volunteers, recruited by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, helping with the pandemic response, according to The Wall Street Journal. These concerns involved the volunteers' use of personal email accounts, which “[led] some vendors to question the authenticity of the outreach.” A FEMA spokesperson said the help from the private sector volunteers is appreciated as the agency works to secure much-needed medical equipment. 

Democrats alleged the Office of Personnel Management is stonewalling their efforts to learn about the status of the agency’s operations and federal employees’ teleworking policies, according to Politico. “Our committee has serious questions about OPM’s decision-making related to COVID-19, including unclear telework guidance; a lack of actions taken to protect federal employees; and now we learn, guidance or standards to reopen government that abdicate any leadership responsibility,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., chairman of the government operations subcommittee of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “This lack of accountability from OPM will not be tolerated.”

Federal Bureau of Prisons staff alleged the government is “getting hustled” by counterfeit masks, Vice reported on Tuesday. Several locations received KN95s masks, which are a counterfeit version of N95 masks from a Chinese manufacturer and not FDA-certified. 

The Internal Revenue Service has been sending stimulus checks to dead people because it does not have “real time” information on who dies. “It’s unclear when coronavirus victims, for example, would show up in the records,” Politico reported. “The agency says it updates its files weekly, though it did not respond to questions about how quickly someone who dies is entered in its database.”

During the briefing on Tuesday night, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he and the president are committed to transparency of coronavirus-related spending. “For full transparency—we had no obligation to do this, we put up…[on] Treasury.gov—full transparency on the money that had been sent out on the [paycheck protection program] across states, showing all the big lenders, how it was distributed,” he said. 

The Small Business Administration notified about 8,000 business owners that their personal information might have been exposed to their fellow loan applicants, CNBC reported on Tuesday. “Personal identifiable information of a limited number of Economic Injury Disaster Loan applicants was potentially exposed to other applicants on SBA’s loan application site,” a senior administration official told CNBC. “We immediately disabled the impacted portion of the website, addressed the issue, and relaunched the application portal.”

Former Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials said the agency is not playing a big enough role during the pandemic and is wrongly leaving too much responsibility to employers, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. “A Labor Department spokeswoman said that notwithstanding the new enforcement approach, ‘if OSHA were to find flagrant violations of the law, the agency would use all enforcement tools available,’ ” the paper reported. 

Twenty-six good government groups wrote to congressional leadership on Tuesday about what they’d like to see in the next stimulus bill. This includes: increased inspectors general protections, more funding for Freedom of Information Act offices, expanded whistleblower protections and various forms of funding oversight. 

CDC extended its emergency directive to allow border agents to prevent migrants from coming into the country in order to prevent spread of the virus until May 20. Read the full announcement from the Federal Register here. 

FedScoop profiled Health and Human Services’ data system to support coronavirus response efforts. The system, called “HHS Protect,” includes 187 data sets from federal, state, academic and industry sources.  

The VA is spending almost $75,000 on masks from MyPillow, which is run by the president’s friend Mike Lindell, according to a recent purchase order on USASpending.gov, Politico reported on Wednesday. Lindell said his company would not make a profit on this. 

Today’s GovExec Daily podcast episode is about how the Trump administration is continuing construction on the border wall between the U.S. and Mexico during the pandemic. 

Upcoming: The White House coronavirus task force will have a briefing at 5 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.