Whisteblower Says HHS Workers Weren't Equipped to Manage Coronavirus Patients

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint.

The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS.

The whistleblower is...

Federal workers did not have the necessary protective gear or training when they were sent to help quarantined Americans who were evacuated from China during the coronavirus outbreak, according to a government whistleblower complaint.

The complaint alleges employees with the Department of Health and Human Services were sent to Travis and March Air Force bases in California without full protective gear and training on how to protect themselves in a viral hot zone.

While helping the evacuees, team members noticed that workers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and...