Dr. Paul Alexander, an epidemiologist with expertise in evidence-based medicine, was recruited in April 2020 from his role as a pandemic advisor for the World Health Organization (WHO) to assist the Trump administration in navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his interview with the Brownstone Institute’s Jeffrey Tucker, the expert in evidence-based medicine recalled how he was watching President Donald Trump in a press conference with the White House Coronavirus Task Force, including Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, trying to understand what they were saying and “bristling at things, upset, screaming at the television,” and “knowing that something was very wrong.”
The person who called him related that due to many of his public statements and published papers, he was noticed by the Oval Office. They were looking to “expand the table” of consultants with “people that the president can trust.”
Alexander said that after some consideration, he accepted this offer, which made him an employee of Health and Human Services (HHS), reporting directly to the secretary and assistant secretary Michael Caputo, as well as advising the White House and all of the managers and directors of the CDC, the FDA, NIH, and others, including all the members of the Coronavirus Task Force.
“Word had come from the deep state… that they will not complete my hire”
After moving his family to Washington, D.C., and renting a condominium near the Capitol building for around $3,000 a month, with the understanding he would be reimbursed for his moving expenses as well, Alexander showed up for his first day of work at the HHS building to discover that the “deep state” had moved to – for all practical purposes – veto his hire.
“I was told very straightforward in meetings by the highest-level people that word had come from the deep state… that they will not complete my hire,” Alexander explained. “So, all of the paperwork that needs to be done for a government person to come here, or even as a Trump appointee, they will not move, [they will do] nothing [to complete it].”
The epidemiologist who graduated with one of his two master’s degrees from Oxford University defined the deep state as “the entrenched bureaucracy, those career public servants, those who think they run the country and own the country.”
Without such paperwork being completed, he would not only be deprived of a salary but have no security clearances, which are necessary to enter the various buildings, attend meetings, and do his job.
Understanding that he was being targeted for his potential to provide and present thorough evidence negating the overall COVID narrative that the deep state was inflicting on the nation and even the world, including the ongoing disaster of lockdowns and the dangers of mask mandates, Alexander resolved to remain in Washington and allow his superiors to sort out his status and salary concerns and to do his best to serve the nation. In the meantime, his hosts figured out that they could classify him as a scientific volunteer for the United States government, which would provide him with the necessary clearances to do his job, but he still would have no salary.
Resolving to go day-by-day in this situation, hoping for a resolution and the reception of back-pay, Alexander continued for weeks and even months with no income. And a resolution never happened.
“If they went as far as to not pay you, they’re not done … the press is what’s going to take you down.”
As part of his job, Dr. Alexander was “constantly” in contact with members of the task force, including Dr. Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Daily he emailed them “studies, anything I saw that would help in their decision making.”
Also implemented at the time as a feature of the government’s COVID-19 response was a daily “high-level” morning meeting that involved directors, managers, supervisors, and more from multiple government agencies, sometimes ranging between 50 and 100 persons. These meetings were held either in physical boardrooms or via teleconference.
Being new to Washington, Alexander’s bosses warned him several times that there were people in these calls who worked for NIH or the CDC whose “job is to subvert and undercut President Trump.” Monitoring the meeting, they will leak to the press anything that can be used to advance their goals, he was told.
“So, you must be very careful about what you say,” his bosses warned. “They are going to leak everything we say to the press. They’re [also] going to work with the IT division to get all of our communications, all [of them], including yours, Paul. And they’re going to find ways to smear and target you.”
“If the Deep State decided they weren’t going to hire you, complete your documented paperwork, so you can get your official badges,” they continued, “if they decided and went as far as to not pay you, they’re not done. If you’re still not leaving, they will go to the press, and the press is what’s going to take you down. You’ve got to be very careful.”
Alexander pushed back on Fauci and was immediately warned that he made a “grave mistake”
However, in June or July 2020, when President Trump was holding campaign rallies making the case for why schools must be opened in the fall and mask mandates should be lifted, a “heads up” communique was sent to all of these high-level government officials informing them that Fauci would be making media appearances in the coming days presenting the opposite message, asserting “why schools must remain closed and why children [still] need to be masked, etc.”Several individual officials replied to the full group in this email, each of them reaffirming Fauci’s message in opposition to Trump.
At the time, Alexander was reading many scientific reports on the grave damages resulting from school closings and the catastrophic harms of masks, especially for children.
“So, I decided that I would respond. I would enter the debate, I would enter the conversation,” Alexander explained.
Paraphrasing his message, he responded to the email chain that “if Dr. Fauci is going on the news … [he] should be armed with the best science.” And if he is going to make the case that schools should remain closed and children should be masked, “Dr. Fauci is wrong, and here’s why. And the NIH is incorrect.”
Dr. Alexander went on to attach 10 to 15 studies demonstrating that “masking is wrong, very harmful to children, very harmful entirely to anyone, ineffective, and that schools should not be closed. The schools should have never been closed and should be open,” he explained.
Immediately, he received sharp retorts from many of the officials in the thread, warning that he had “made a grave mistake… pushing back on Dr. Fauci openly and the NIH senior scientists.” While it appears no one wanted to present a scientific argument for why Alexander himself was wrong in his assessment, the broad consensus simply emphasized that the epidemiologist made a “grave mistake” embarrassing Fauci and his colleagues.
“They are now going to move to cancel you and to cut your balls off”
Around two days later, Alexander relates how he learned the results of offering a compelling scientific argument that exposes the erroneous COVID-19 narrative of NIH and the CDC among the deep state agencies in Washington, D.C.
Following one of their standard meetings at HHS, two individuals whom he identifies only as a manager and supervisor, one from CDC and the other from NIH, walked with him as he returned to his office relating in a friendly tone that they wanted to meet him because they “really enjoy some of what you’re saying.”
They explained very kindly to him, however, that based on common knowledge in D.C., the sending off of his email to Fauci and NIH, “pretty much slapping them down,” was a very serious matter. “They are going to do everything now to destroy your name and your career.”
When Alexander asked why they would do such a thing, they said, “you questioned Dr. Fauci openly, you said that he was wrong, and you said the NIH was wrong, and you provided all these studies. You pretty much showed up the scientific arm as being out-of-step and incompetent.”
“But they were wrong,” Alexander replied.
“Yes, but nobody has ever challenged Fauci openly, and they’re going to cut your balls off,” these officials said. “The decision has been made at the highest levels of government: CDC, NIH, Fauci, and his team. They are now going to move to cancel you and cut your balls off.”
Alexander asked, “What do you mean exactly?”
“They’re going to destroy you, Paul. They’re going to destroy your name, your career. You’ll never work in Washington again. They’ll end your career,” one of them replied.
After offering to write Fauci an email apology, these individuals whose names are withheld by Alexander told him, “No, you don’t understand, it’s done… It’s over. They will select communications between you and all the parties in your unit and across HHS, and they will find a word in it or a line. They found a line, and they’re going to leak it in about four days to the mainstream media, across the board, all [of them]. And they’re going to create a narrative. And they’re going to go about destroying your name.”
“The media already has [the line] and has already written their stories. It’s just going to come out on a certain day,” they said.
Alexander and his family were subjected to relentless media harassment, death threats
Three or four days later, stories came out in the press attacking Alexander for promoting the natural herd immunity strategy with his colleagues in an internal email correspondence where he pointed out that children and low-risk adults should be encouraged to simply live their lives as normal. If or when they are “naturally” and “harmlessly” infected with COVID-19, “they will recover,” build immunity and help protect the vulnerable.
Instead, through misquotes, the media reports spun his approach as “pretty much ‘Trump HHS official wants to kill all of your children,’” Alexander explained.
A few months later, in October 2020, distinguished infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists released a document called the Great Barrington Declaration advocating for Alexander’s precise approach to ending the pandemic. This declaration’s website currently reports endorsements by over 63,000 medical practitioners and medical and public health scientists.
The media pressure on Alexander continued relentlessly into September, including stories hitting the press charging Dr. Alexander with “interference” with CDC publications where he expressed his professional judgment that they were “writing hit pieces on the administration.” And with regards to children and the virus, he wrote, “CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school re-opening . . . Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear.”
His boss, HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Michael Caputo, clarified that his office “clears virtually all public facing documents for all of its divisions, including CDC,” CNBC reported at the time. “Our intention is to ensure that evidence, science-based data drives policy through this pandemic—not ulterior deep state motives in the bowels of CDC.”
Due to media attacks, Alexander was subjected to death threats and harassment by reporters camped outside his home, a period of his life he classified as “hell.” Since it was the campaign season, the White House also put him on “lockdown” as they didn’t want him to “suck any air out of the president’s messaging.” Thus, he was not even allowed to defend himself in any way in the media with statements or interviews.
The White House repeatedly advised him to persevere in silence “one more day” until another story breaks the news cycle. If the story is big enough, they told him, “you will disappear,” which is precisely what happened with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg on September 18. At that point, Alexander experienced some relief from the media pressure.
“I went through hell, and President Trump went through more than hell. He had it for four years.”
In describing what he casually and repeatedly referred to as the “deep state,” Alexander said that if HHS had 10,000 employees, “maybe 9,990 were against President Trump. It was that serious.”
In fact, he reports that many of these career officials confided in him, stating “glowingly and confidently: ‘We work daily, daily, every day, from early in the morning to close of business, and still when we go to our homes… Our sole purpose is to undercut and undermine Trump 24/7. Our jobs, collectively, at FDA, CDC… is to make his [COVID] response come across as unmanageable, ungovernable, [and] chaotic.’”
In fact, he recalled being in situations where Fauci or his team would threaten the president if he didn’t approve something they were requesting. They would tell the Trump team that they will go to the media “right now in 5 minutes and leak that we are ‘muzzling’ [Fauci],” Alexander said.
“Trump governed with these people threatening him every day because the media was their arm.”
“The reason I still support President Trump is this: I don’t think anybody has ever gone through what he went through for those four years. I went through hell, and he went through more than hell. He had it for four years. And he was isolated because most of those people in the White House were not his friends… Many of them were deep state too, and they were subverting him,” he said.
“President Trump runs nothing”
The most dramatic account presented by the Canadian scientist recalled an acute conflict that occurred on September 16, precipitated by HHS authorities demanding he tender his resignation by 4:00 p.m. that afternoon.
Dr. Alexander received an early morning call at home that day from an HHS official directing him to report to certain persons immediately upon his arrival in the office. Recognizing this demand as being out of the ordinary, he made a few calls and learned of the government’s decision to demand his resignation that day.
Just after he concluded these calls on his government-issued work phone, his private phone rang with a call coming from a person in the White House, “inside the Oval” that Alexander didn’t want to identify.
“We know that the deep state bureaucracy is moving to fire you today,” this person reportedly told the epidemiologist. “We wanted to get in touch with you to tell you, don’t go to the office.”
“We are going to instruct the bureaucracy to stand down, that President Trump has directly intervened,” this official informed him. “We have made a decision that you are going… to enter the White House in about two weeks. You are going to become a direct special adviser.”
Thus, the White House official said they would be contacting HHS to direct them that Dr. Alexander would not be resigning and of his coming transition. They also reemphasized to the epidemiologist, “don’t go to the office. Don’t hand in your laptop, don’t hand in your cell phone… Just act as if you didn’t hear from them today.”
Shortly after ending this discussion and preparing to stay home for the day, Dr. Alexander received another call from the HHS authorities on his work cell phone asking why he wasn’t in the office yet. Alexander asked if they had heard from the White House, and they reportedly confirmed they had.
“Well then, [you’re aware] I’m not coming in today,” he replied.
“No, you must come in today by 4:00, as we told you,” the HHS official insisted. “And we want your equipment before that, immediately. And you have to tender your resignation by 4:00. If you don’t, at 4:01, we will put out an advisory that we have terminated you.”
Further, they stated, “We don’t care what the White House said.” Alexander identified them as the HHS HR director and two Department of Justice attorneys (DOJ) attorneys.
At that moment, the White House called again on his private phone and asked if he heard from these officials again. He said he had, and they were on the other line and could hear them
“Ok, we are telling you again. Do not go to the office. Do not resign. Do not give them anything,” the Oval Office official reiterated. “You are entering the White House in a matter of days, so you do not go to the office, and we are going to handle it.”
The HHS official with the DOJ attorneys replied to Dr. Alexander, “Yeah, we just heard the White House. But we’re trying to tell you; basically, we don’t give a crap what they are saying in the Oval Office. We are telling you that you bring your laptop and cell phone immediately. Your badges, everything, and you sign a resignation letter.”
Following one more highly intense phone conversation with the official from the White House, reiterating the same points above, demanding the subordinate agencies “stand down” out of deference to this intervention by the President of the United States, Dr. Alexander returned to the HHS representatives and reports their response in the following way:
’Yes. We just heard everything that was said there. We need you to understand, Dr. Alexander, President Trump has no power.’ This is the exact terms and I want to be able to say it. ‘President Trump has no power. He can’t tell us in the bureaucracy what to do. He has none. This president has no power. None. Zero. We are telling you, bring your equipment or we will come for it. And you come and you resign by 4:00. We run the government. President Trump runs nothing.’ That’s the exact words. ‘We run the government. President Trump runs nothing. So, we expect you here in about 15 minutes.’ And they put down the phone.
After a conversation with his wife, Dr. Alexander decided to just resign and leave Washington, being exhausted by the intense pressure.
Nations all over the world were only locked down out of fear that the U.S. ‘would blacklist them’ and ‘take draconian steps’ against them if they did not comply
In an email correspondence with LifeSiteNews, Dr. Alexander emphasized that the “key” point in his interview was to reveal the formidable cabal of the deep state and “how much they worked against Trump” to subvert the will of the American people who sent him to Washington to implement policies serving their legitimate interests and the common good.
But Alexander also highlighted in his interview that this dangerous influence of the administrative state goes far beyond the borders of the U.S. due to America’s position in the world.
While working at HHS, the epidemiologist reported that despite their full knowledge that the pandemic data was “very questionable” and “wrong,” officials “at the State Department level in several countries told me that their nations only locked down… because America locked down.”
“They did it out of fear. They felt that the United States would blacklist them if they did not lock down and that the United States would take draconian steps” against them and their people if they did not comply.
“How the world… comes out of this eventually depends on what happens in America. If we don’t get this right, what is happening now if we don’t find a way to fix this,” it will drastically impact the rest of the world as well, Alexander opined.
Alexander encouraged bipartisan high-level officials to want hearings on CDC ‘based on the actual science and evidence’; more to come in the future
But not all is dire in Alexander’s view. While he judged the CDC to be “a deranged public health agency” that produces “garbage science,” which contributed, in his view, to the Coronavirus Task Force is a “clown car show,” he is encouraged that there are “very senior people” from “both sides of the aisle” who “recognize the shortcomings and failures of the CDC.”
Alexander shared that shortly after his arrival in D.C., he had discussions with high-ranking government officials who charged him with “a very serious, very high level, confidential task” to provide them with “a dispassionate, unbiased, nonpolitical scientific report” of the work produced by the CDC. The report should also include his “deep analysis” of the quality of their output and his recommendations.
This bipartisan group of officials intended this report to be a basis for hearings in the House and Senate evaluating the CDC “based on actual science and evidence.” It was their intention to “go at all of the alphabet agencies, public health, the health agencies: CDC, NIH, NIAID, FDA,” beginning with the CDC.
Though Dr. Alexander expressed to LifeSite how much he wants to put this experience behind him, he indicated to interviewer Jeffrey Tucker that he was holding back significant information “because I want to have discussions more and develop more” in the future.
