Ex-Trump Aide’s ‘Inspire Hope’ Virus Ads Face Scrutiny From HHS

(Bloomberg) -- A controversial $300 million ad campaign about the coronavirus being developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will face a “strategic review,” the department's leader said.

The media campaign, funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been a source of controversy for more than a month, since Politico reported it was designed to “defeat despair and inspire hope” in messages potentially landing around the election.

The ads were conceived by Michael Caputo, a former campaign aide to President Donald Trump and top public affairs official at HHS, who has since taken medical leave. Any products from the campaign will be “reviewed by career public health officials,” including those at the CDC, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told members of congress in a hearing Friday.

The ad campaign is the only notable initiative to be funded out of $1 billion in emergency funds congress sent the CDC in April, Bloomberg News reported Thursday. CDC director Robert Redfield has testified that the agency had no involvement in the campaign other than financially supporting it. The rest of the $1 billion remains unspent, despite CDC's requests to access it.

Azar disclosed the review of the campaign during a wide-ranging hearing by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. He defended the administration response to the pandemic after Democrats on the committee alleged political interference in scientific agencies, including the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, which will vet vaccines now in trials.

Azar said the strategic review would seek “to determine whether the campaign serves important public health purposes.”

But even as Azar said HHS would review the messaging campaign, he defended its purpose. “This is important public health messaging,” he said, comparing the cost to other federal health advertising around quitting smoking or enrolling in health insurance.

Republican members on the panel, meanwhile, sought to place blame for the growth of coronavirus in the U.S. on China and accused some Democratic governors of exacerbating the crisis and sowing doubt about vaccine safety.

Azar also fielded questions from Democratic members about the Affordable Care Act, which the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to invalidate in a case that will be argued a week after Election Day.

Azar said Obamacare was an option for millions of people who lost health coverage during the pandemic, while also noting that policies can be costly for those without subsidies. If the court strikes the law, Azar said, “we will work with congress to replace it with real health care.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.