The White House announced on March 28 that it will commit $500 million from President Joe Biden's budget to the Norway-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations to support affordable COVID-19 vaccine development. Unmentioned in the announcement is that a key Health and Human Services official in charge of coordinating the agency's COVID-19 response, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O'Connell, served as CEPI's U.S.
However, the White House did not provide an answer when asked if O'Connell had any involvement in the administration's decision to commit $500 million to her former employer. A second foreign nonprofit group that received a $290 million commitment from the White House also shares close ties to a senior Biden administration official.
USAID granted Bilimoria an ethics waiver just weeks after she joined the Biden administration that authorized her to participate in official COVID-19 matters involving her former employer.