Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the final two years of the Obama presidency, has been no stranger to yelling “FIRE” in a crowded theater when it comes to attempting to spread panic about the coronavirus outbreak, but he’s finally outdone himself. Here’s what Slavitt tweeted earlier:
.@ASlavitt deleted his tweets.. because, well, he knew it wasn't true.. way to go pinhead. pic.twitter.com/g9WSQXLJdr
— Don't Label Me (@DavidChristoson) March 27, 2020
Yeah, about that:
@henryfordnews Can you confirm if this is a legitimate letter being given to patients?
— GumboJesus (@GumboJesus) March 27, 2020
Hi @GumboJesus, this policy was developed should we need to implement it. We have not needed it at this time.
— Henry Ford News (@HenryFordNews) March 27, 2020
Busted. Again…
You lied about a hospital being out of Ventilators.
And you know you lied, and I have receipts.
Now you are lying again.
You are human garbage. pic.twitter.com/tJygn0aiIP
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) March 27, 2020
25 minutes ago they tweeted that they hope to never apply this policy.
This is a far cry from what is claimed in the @ASlavitt's tweet.
Delete that fear mongering garbage. Sick pic.twitter.com/lUdtpzza6z
— Carpe Donktum? (@CarpeDonktum) March 27, 2020
Eventually Slavitt did delete the tweet. It would have been bad enough if the story ended there, but Slavitt then served up this spin:
I removed a tweet because it enflamed a left-right contraversy about how bad the crisis is becoming in major hospitals running low or out of capacity.
While I want to inform with the best knowledge I have, I won’t do that at the expense of that kind of discord right now.
— Andy Slavitt @ ? (@ASlavitt) March 27, 2020
Oh yeah, because this guy has such a great track record of trying to help bring everybody together! *Eye roll*
Also, it was not true. https://t.co/qfpJHCoznb
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) March 27, 2020
You removed the tweet because you made-up that a Michigan hospital was rationing ventilators while offering zero proof to substantiate to claim. https://t.co/GaWfGsimTL
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) March 27, 2020
What a way to say you were wrong. https://t.co/dIrfzKYqBL
— neontaster (@neontaster) March 27, 2020
Why not admit that you removed a tweet because the hospital in question issued a clarification that showed that your tweet (and a lot of others like it, I'd add) was false?
It's not about discord, it's about irresponsibly spreading dangerous bad information to cause a panic. https://t.co/AInJzqFBQW
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) March 27, 2020
And that’s exactly Slavitt’s intent. It’s just that this time he got called out, and hopefully it’s not the last time.
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