Ivanka Trump’s husband Jared Kushner, who was entrusted by President Donald Trump on how to respond to the coronavirus threat, has been racking his brains on how the government should deal with the pandemic. Since he has no medical training, Kushner reportedly consulted last week with Kurt Kloss, the father-in-law of his brother Joshua, according to Daily Mail.
While Kurt Kloss is an emergency room doctor in upstate New York, he had no ready answer for an issue of such magnitude. Thus, he created a post in a private group chat for doctors with around 22,000 members asking them for “serious suggestion” on how to respond to the coronavirus problem American is facing.
“If you were in charge of Federal response to the Pandemic what would your recommendation be,” Kloss wrote in his post based on screenshots obtained by Spectator USA. “I have a direct channel to the person now in charge at the White House.”
“Please only serious responses,” Kloss added. “I have already expressed concern for need for ventilators and more PPE for frontline and test kits.”
“Tonight I was asked by Jared through my son-in-law for my recommendations,” Kloss wrote on Wednesday evening, according to NY Times. “That’s when I turned to you guys my fellow BAFERDs for help.” The publication explained that the term “BAFERD” is an acronym for emergency room doctors.
After discussions with members of the group, Kloss reportedly came up with a 13-point list, according to Daily Mail reported. The recommendations include “nationalized production of [protective equipment] and test kits, pop-up field hospitals, draconian travel ban and ban on all mass gatherings” but it’s unclear if the list made it to the White House.
Many were alarmed when news about Kloss’ “outsourced knowledge gathering” was made public. One person described the FB group as “far from a group of experts” but more of a “collection of rando doctors on social media.”
By Thursday evening, the post was deleted from Dr. Kloss’s page. The White House also refused to comment on the issue while Kloss hasn’t answered calls.