As the White House clamors to combat the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior aide, has reportedly turned to a nontraditional resource: advice crowdsourced from Facebook.
Kurt Kloss, a doctor and the father-in-law of Jared Kushner’s brother, Josh, on Wednesday posted in a Facebook group for physicians called EM Docs, asking for its nearly 22,000 members to brainstorm measures to stop the coronavirus outbreak, The Spectator first reported on Thursday. Politico later independently published a report on Kloss’ posts.
“I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House,” Kloss reportedly wrote, adding: “If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic what would your recommendation be. Please only serious responses.”
The Trump administration has faced criticism over its scattered response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 1,700 people in the US, as Trump has repeatedly downplayed the urgency of the outbreak and as questions about the availability of tests have gone unanswered.
Trump has put Kushner in charge of researching steps to address the outbreak and presenting his findings to the president, Politico reported on Wednesday.
In a statement to Politico, an unnamed White House official said Kushner “is, of course involved in the coronavirus response, but he is not in charge of coronavirus research.”
Kloss reportedly wrote that he sent 12 recommendations to Kushner on Thursday morning.
“Jared is reading now,” he said.
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