FILE – In this Oct. 24, 2013 file photo, Andy Slavitt, now the acting Medicare administrator, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. A federal audit finds that the government stored sensitive personal information on millions of health insurance customers in a computer system with basic security flaws. The system is called MIDAS, the central electronic storehouse for information collected under President Barack Obama’s health care law. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

Andy Slavitt was the former acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under Barack Obama from March 2015 to the end of his presidency. He describes himself as “ACA head under Obama.”

Since the Wuhan coronavirus hit, Slavitt has been an extremist voice, putting the worse possible face on everything, claiming things like “experts expect over 1 million deaths in the U.S. since the virus was not contained & we cannot even test for it,” according to National Review. But that is decidedly not what the experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx have been saying,

As Birx has said, such extreme predictions don’t match the reality of what they are seeing on the ground. That doesn’t mean don’t take it seriously or do all the things we’ve been doing in response re: social distancing. But there is a middle between “it’s nothing” and “everyone is going to die.”

Slavitt also was involved in this exchange where he was called out by another former Obama official, former FEMA head Craig Fugate.

Former FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate just walked off MSNBC: "I don't have time to listen to bullshit people." pic.twitter.com/m01JDIUrrl — Emily Jashinsky (@emilyjashinsky) March 19, 2020

But Slavitt really went over the slide on Thursday night. He posted a tweet, which he later deleted, claiming that a “major hospital in the Midwest” had just reached its limit “minutes ago” on ventilators and he claimed that the hospital was passing out forms saying only the people “with the best chance of survival” would get care, everyone else would just get pain medication.

People naturally asked him to name the hospital which he declined to do.

This would be lawsuit central. Please post the form. Just take a magic marker to the hospital’s name. pic.twitter.com/jC3Vu5GWnz — Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 27, 2020

As it turned out, the claim was false.

There was a “form” that the Henry Ford Health System in Michigan had drafted. In it they said that they had been debating what to do in the event of an emergency and that the form in question was related to that.

A letter from the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit leaked detailing a policy to focus resources on COVID-19 patients "who have the best chance of getting better" & providing "comfort care" to those who don't. Henry Ford says the policy isn't active: https://t.co/GyTuzikJ1t pic.twitter.com/YGR7Ht8OJU — Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) March 27, 2020

But as they noted, that was only internal discussion, that it wasn’t policy and there was no such need at this time.

With a pandemic, we must be prepared for worst case. With collective wisdom from our industry, we crafted a policy to provide guidance for making difficult patient care decisions. We hope never to have to apply them. We will always utilize every resource to care for our patients. — Henry Ford News (@HenryFordNews) March 27, 2020

From Detroit News:

The hospital system has not reached capacity at any of its locations, nor has it reached the limit on ventilators at any of its hospitals, said Brenda Craig, vice president of the health system’s integrated communications. “The letter is part of a larger internal document that unfortunately was shared publicly,” Craig said. “It would only be something used in a worst case scenario, and we are not in one right now at any of our hospitals.”

In other words, what Slavitt said was a bunch of horse hockey, that they were out of ventilators “minutes ago.” He acted as though he’d just been given that information.

As Dr. Deborah Birx explained on Thursday, there is no shortage of ventilators anywhere in the country at this time and she specifically scolded people putting out false information or helping to panic people over such information.

But both Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Kasie Hunt spread the false story.

I took down this tweet after the person who posted it deleted it. I’m including what the hospital had to say about it here also. pic.twitter.com/TG9GoPnzB7 — Kasie Hunt (@kasie) March 27, 2020

Today, even after the clarification by the hospital, people are still spreading Henry Ford’s response as though they were already at that point and freaking out people even more.

Slavitt backtracked after he deleted his tweet.

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

Translation: he spread false information that panicked people. He said they were out of ventilators and were implementing a policy they were not in fact doing.

I apologized for the controversy. Now I’m apologizing for the tweet itself. It was a mistake. But it would be a mistake to let my poor judgment obscure the concern. Hospitals are doing everything they can & a friend in the WH is working on it full time. 2/ — Andy Slavitt @ 🏡 (@ASlavitt) March 27, 2020

Now I’m concerned if he has any “friends” in the White House working on this. Andy? Everyone in the White House is working on it and have been while you’re spreading misinformation on Twitter.

Slavitt acted as though he were critically involved in addressing the ventilator “shortage.”

We are also tracking what anticipated ventilator shortages are in each state. Working with FEMA we are launching a resource to locate vents & get as many as possible to where they need to be. 3/ — Andy Slavitt @ 🏡 (@ASlavitt) March 27, 2020

Um, you’re not in office? And people who are actually in office are already doing that?

Hold me to account for anything I tweet. But please don’t let up on staying home so as not to effect others as much as possible. As the data I shared yesterday show, it gives health care workers & hospitals the best chance. 4/ — Andy Slavitt @ 🏡 (@ASlavitt) March 27, 2020

And I am sorry. 5/ — Andy Slavitt @ 🏡 (@ASlavitt) 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

So here’s how he can actually show he’s sorry. Instead of trying to panic people and spread false information against the Trump administration, how about actually listening to what they are saying? At least then you wouldn’t be spreading easily refuted nonsense and causing panic.