Brett Giroir and Donald Trump--egos on the loose

The Washington Post is reporting that Brett Giroir, who coordinates the federal effort for COVID-19 testing, was forced out of his previous job working on vaccine development at A&M University—the very experience that Giroir has touted as giving him special expertise. Giroir held various positions at Texas A&M from 2008, and headed the Health Science Center from 2013-2015.

Brett Giroir, the federal official overseeing coronavirus testing efforts, says that his experience working on vaccine development projects at Texas A&M University helped prepare him for this historic moment. He once said that his vaccine effort was so vital that “the fate of 50 million people will rely on us getting this done.” But after eight years of work on several vaccine projects, Giroir was told in 2015 he had 30 minutes to resign or he would be fired. His annual performance evaluation at Texas A&M, the local newspaper reported, said he was “more interested in promoting yourself” than the health science center where he worked. He got low marks on being a “team player.” (WaPo)

(The “local newspaper” is not identified, but I found this Eagle article from July 2015 referencing the performance evaluation.)

He is described by those who worked with him as exaggerating the impact of his work, over-promising and under-delivering, and being unable to control his temper. Well, Trump hired him for a reason. Giroir recently came under fire from state governments for distributing a pitiful 115 COVID-19 test kits per state, after all Trump’s big talk. As Laura Clawson reported, Giroir responded by whining to CNN, “No good deed goes unpunished.”

As for the complaints from some governors that they still lack testing capabilities, Giroir said in the interview that anyone who “needs a test” can get one. (WaPo)

Let’s see what an actual governor thinks of Giroir:

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) said Wednesday on brother Chris Cuomo’s CNN show that he wasn’t familiar with Giroir. Asked by his brother about the man “in charge of the most important component” of dealing with the virus, the governor responded: “I'll take your word that he exists, but I wouldn't know otherwise.”

Giroir has worn a number of different hats in this administration (wiki). As Assistant Secretary of Health, Giroir has worked to take away access to birth control and abortion (Rewire)—he is a forced birther, because of course. Now he’s supposed to end the enormous shortfall of tests for the novel coronavirus, but he doesn’t seem to have the same concern for the already born.

Sorry for the short diary; Giroir is just one more tiny irritation in this munted shitshow.