At the time of the US election, COVID-19 cases in the US were on the rise amid a seasonal surge in both hospitalizations and death. There was a “perfect storm”, for not only were COVID cases expanding, but Trump had lost the election. He and his team of lawyers were mounting a campaign to overturn the election results—refusing to concede the election to Joe Biden and urging state election officials to ‘find’ votes that Trump said were meant for him. Multiple sectors of society were in turmoil: health, politics, media, economic—the list goes on. And the sectors were intersecting with one another, thus further exacerbating the crisis. As an apparent “expert” on immunology, Hatfill steps into the crisis-ridden intersect and in this capacity was soon offering advice to the White House that was far beyond his area of expertise.
When a colleague at George Washington University asked Hatfill why he wasn’t ‘fixing the virus,’ Hatfill responded: ‘Because the election thing got out of control. I go where my team goes,’ citing his efforts to help challenge the outcome of the election in Nevada, according to emails obtained by the Washington Post. Hatfill defended his role in election-era spin in a statement to the newspaper:
From my perspective as a Doctor, I was, and continue to be, frustrated with public health being treated as a political football. Moreover, I was disgusted with the destruction of the National Pandemic Plan at the hands of conflicted petty bureaucrats; a plan that focused on early treatment and community outreach, rather than experimental vaccines and panic
Hatfill expanded his domain of advice regarding COVID-related matters. He seemed to promote the President Trump’s COVID drug of choice: hydroxycloroquine.
A September 22 2020 letter to then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows: “The President has been grossly misadvised by the COVID Task Force on the proper pandemic response to COVID-19.” Hatfill offered a later historical observation (referring to hydroxychloroquine):
I was asked to serve in the Executive Office of the President of the United States in a time of extreme crisis. I accepted this call without reservation, and would do so again, regardless of the political affiliation of the Executive Branch.’
The acceptance of advice from Hatfill during the late months of 2020 is particularly puzzling because this immunologist was not offering his expertise from a spotless perspective. It seems that Hatfill first gained prominence after being accused of taking part in the 2001 anthrax attacks, where letters containing spores of the deadly bacteria were sent to media outlets and lawmakers, killing five and infecting 17 people. At the time, Hatfill’s home was raided by the FBI and his phone was tapped. Hatfill subsequently sued The Justice Department. He was paid $2.825 million in cash and an annuity of $150,000 a year for 20 years, according to the New York Times. We see even in this 2001 episode that Hatfill was crossing boundaries between the sectors of health, politics and justice. He was accused of using his knowledge of anthrax (health) to bring about the death of government workers (politics) and eventually turned to the courts (justice) for compensatory damages.
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