Azar submitted the usual resignation letter for a Cupboard secretary to supply an outgoing president, dated January 12 and obtained by CNN Friday.
Within the letter, addressed to President Trump, Azar laid out what he thought-about to be the perfect accomplishments of HHS over the previous 4 years.
“Sadly, the actions and rhetoric following the election, particularly throughout this previous week, threaten to tarnish these and different historic legacies of this Administration,” Azar wrote within the letter.
“The assaults on the Capitol have been an assault on our democracy and on the custom of peaceable transitions of energy that america of America first delivered to the world,” Azar wrote within the letter, first reported by the New York Instances.
“I implore you to proceed to sentence unequivocally any type of violence, to demand that nobody try and disrupt the inaugural actions in Washington or elsewhere, and to proceed to help unreservedly the peaceable and orderly transition of energy on January 20, 2021.”
Azar stated he plans to remain in his position till Jan. 20, when the president-elect Joe Biden’s staff takes over.
Azar mentions the coronavirus pandemic first and it was, by far, the largest improvement of Trump’s presidency. Greater than 390,000 Individuals have died within the pandemic and greater than 23 million have been recognized with the virus.
However in his letter, Azar would not point out these numbers, the federal authorities’s failure to warn of a pandemic for weeks, or the enormously delayed rollout of checks that public well being consultants say slowed the US response throughout essential weeks that might have slowed the unfold of the virus.
Azar doesn’t point out disagreements over the hazard of the virus — Trump repeatedly claimed it could “disappear” — and would not point out arguments over mandating and even recommending the usage of masks to sluggish the unfold.
As an alternative, Azar characterizes his division’s actions as fast and aggressive.
“Whereas we mourn each misplaced life, our early, aggressive and complete efforts saved lots of of 1000’s and even tens of millions of American lives,” Azar writes within the letter.
“Operation Warp Velocity achieved in 9 months what many doubted could be attainable in a yr and a half or extra,” Azar stated.
“As of this date we’ve two secure and efficient vaccines being administered to tens of millions of Individuals, with extra vaccines prone to be licensed shortly.”
Whereas it is true the vaccines have been developed in file time and are remarkably efficient, the rollout has been slower than promised.
Operation Warp Velocity repeatedly promised 20 million Individuals would have been vaccinated by the tip of December. As of Friday — three days after Azar submitted the letter — 10.6 million individuals had been vaccinated.
