“We could have handled this … a whole lot differently,” Sen. Gary Peters said.
The 242-page report authored by the committee’s majority, chaired by Democrat Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, expands on the perfect storm of colliding factors, such as longstanding systematic vulnerabilities in various parts of the government, that led to early bungling of the pandemic response. The report also builds on criticism of how then-President Donald Trump’s White House responded to the virus in 2020.
The committee’s majority staff said they endeavored to unpack why, from early on, the federal government appeared unprepared to address the pandemic — and why the Trump administration failed to adequately respond, while exerting partisan influence to exploit public health messaging as a political football.
Delayed action and repeatedly muddled communication eroded public trust and contributed to a greater loss of American lives, the report found, noting that the U.S. risks repeating the same mistakes in future disasters.
“Communication from the White House at times contradicted statements from public health officials and statements from public health officials at times contradicted prior statements from other public health officials, without sufficient explanation,” the report states. That left the American public grappling with “inaccurate and contradictory communication.”