Important update to a recent post
US Department of State Leader Says His Comments Are Mischaracterized
The senior official at the US Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy reached out yesterday to say that I had mischaracterized his remarks at a recent briefing for Congressional staffers in a post published on Friday. Jeff Graham told me that he did not say that the US was exploring alternatives to WHO prequalification at the briefing. (I did not attend the meeting and based my reporting on others’ notes and recollections.)
As noted in the original post1, Graham and several of his colleagues at the Bureau are career professionals whose integrity and skills are undisputed, and whose continued presence in their roles is important.
I hope that readers of the original version will note the alterations to the post with regard to descriptions of the event in question.
Prior to making the edits, I asked Graham whether it was inaccurate to say that the US was exploring a WHO pre qualification-like regulatory option at all. Graham declined to answer directly, though he did write, in the LinkedIn chat where this exchange occurred, “Prequal is an FDA issue, not State.”
Because the mischaracterization identified was with regard to remarks at a specific event, and not with the possibility of an American alternative approach to regulatory approval for global public goods, I have chosen to leave the post up, in edited form, rather than removing it as Graham requested.