Paul Elias Alexander is a Canadian independent scientist,[1] and a former Trump administration official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alexander was recruited from his part-time, unpaid position at McMaster University to serve as an aide to HHS assistant secretary for public affairs Michael Caputo in March 2020.
In that role, Alexander pressured federal scientists and public health agencies to suppress and edit their COVID-19 analyses to make them consistent with Trump's rhetoric.
[8] In late March 2020, Alexander was recruited as scientific advisor by Michael Caputo, the newly appointed assistant secretary for public affairs at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Alexander said that the report, whose limitations the CDC had acknowledged, would "frighten women" and give the impression that "the President and his administration can't fix this and it is getting worse".
[10] In August and early September 2020, Alexander sent several messages to press officers at the National Institutes of Health attempting to direct Dr. Anthony Fauci's media comments.
"[7] In an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail after his departure from HHS, Alexander defended his actions, stating that he had wanted the CDC to make their reports "more upbeat so that people would feel more confident going out and spending money", and that he "did not think agencies should contradict any president's policy".
[20] He was a "board advisor" for "Taking Back our Freedoms", a Canadian group whose stated goal was "to bring a quick end to the so-called ‘C-19 health emergencies’ along with their unlawful ‘mandates’".
The book was promoted as an "explosive behind-the-scenes look at Donald Trump's final months in office and how the COVID crisis response was a carefully crafted plan to ruin him".