Jared Kushner has a lot on his plate. The White House senior adviser was tasked this week with conducting research into the coronavirus to help Trump decide whether to declare a national emergency. According to Politico, Kushner is talking to ‘relevant parties‘ and will ‘present his findings to the president’.

It appears that one of these ‘relevant parties’ is an emergency room doctor called Kurt Kloss, father of Jared’s sister-in-law Karlie. And Dr Kloss sought the advice of other medical professionals on Kushner’s behalf…in a Facebook group with almost 22,000 members.

‘If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic what would your recommendation be,’ Kloss wrote in the private group Wednesday, according to screenshots passed to The Spectator. ‘Please only serious responses. I have direct channel to person now in charge at White House and have been asked for recommendations. I have already expressed concern for need for ventilators and more PPE (personal protective equipment) for frontline and test kits.’

Many of the doctors in the group were forthcoming with suggestions — but some expressed skepticism. ‘For transparency I will provide some background about my unique circumstance. I have not shared this in a professional forum before,’ Dr Kloss clarifies. ‘Our daughter Karlie Kloss (one of the top models in the world, 45 Vogue covers and counting; proud dad commentary) is marred to Mr Joshua Kushner. His brother is Mr Jared Kushner son in law to the President and who is now directly involved with the response to this. I have been over the past two weeks expressing our concern through Josh about lack of PPE availability, the frustration of not being able to test and especially to ensure enough ventilators. Tonight I was asked by Jared through my son in-law for my recommendations, that’s when I turned to you guys my fellow BAFERD’s for help.’

BAFERD is an acronym for ‘Bad Ass Fucking Emergency Room Doctor‘.

‘Between patients tonight I have reviewed your responses and will summarize what I am sending to Jared for your PEER review before I sent it,’ Dr Kloss continues. ‘Unfortunately, my patients are not cooperating. I hope to have this posted before I go to bed later this morning. In the almost 30 years of training for and practicing EMERGENCY MEDICINE I have not been afraid until today.’





In other posts, Kloss asks for a ‘name and contact for Disaster Medicine leader’ and ‘thoughts on how to best utilize EMS in response’.

The doctor summarizes the group’s suggestions in an 11-point list, which he also posted on his publicly viewable Facebook profile:

Thoughts so far

1) Nationalize as in war time production of PPE’s, testing kits and ventilators

2) Suspend EMTALA (the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act)

3) Activate FEMA and DMAT teams

4)Pop up Field Hospitals with ICU capability Israel seems to have expertise

5)Decentralized testing away from hospital or if on hospital away from ED (emergency department)

6)Drive through testing capability and I would add pulse ox capability

7)Draconian travel restrictions

8)Canceling all mass gatherings

9)Massive marketing of PSA explaining what patients to do especially not going to ED if not in respiratory distress (Need to refine this message )

10)National Telemedicine for screening

11)Locking down Nursing Homes require all care givers in full gear and frequent testing

12)Use state ACEP (American College of Emergency Physicians) for some sort of incident command structure

13)Use emergency funding to compensate quarantined

A few hours after his previous posts, Dr Kloss informs the group that ‘Jared is reading now’.

Two hours after that, he thanks the other doctors for their ‘great recommendations and comments, I have to get some sleep’.

Dr Kloss’s daughter Karlie and her husband Josh Kushner are both Democrats. In a recent interview with Vogue, Karlie described being related to Jared and Ivanka as ‘hard’ and said: ‘I choose to focus on the values that I share with my husband, and those are the same liberal values that I was raised with and that have guided me throughout my life.’

The White House did not return a request for comment.

President Trump depends on his son-in-law for assistance with the most pressing issues of government. At present, Jared is attempting to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine, building the wall, tackling the opioid epidemic, reducing mass incarceration and overhauling the federal bureaucracy.

With such a long to-do list, can Kushner really be blamed for seeking help? Even if it does result in a boomer crowdsourcing advice on a Facebook group that could inform US government policy .

Thank God someone in the administration is seeing a doctor…

Update 3/13 10 a.m. ET: Kloss’s posts have been deleted from the group, according to Politico.