The Transportation Security Administration is under investigation after an official filed a whistleblower report accusing the agency of “gross mismanagement” of the coronavirus outbreak, NPR reports.
TSA Federal Security Director Jay Brainard, who oversees transportation security for the state of Kansas, filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. The OSC on Thursday called on the Department of Homeland Security to open an investigation into his claims.
Brainard alleges the TSA withheld N95 masks from staff and did not take enough preventative measures to reduce virus exposure to staff and travelers during the initial outbreak. He also claims the agency is still not doing enough to protect travelers and employees in the complaint.
"We did not take adequate steps to make sure that we were not becoming carriers and spreaders of the virus ourselves," Brainard told NPR. "I believe absolutely that that contributed to the spread of the coronavirus."
In his complaint, Brainard states TSA employees were not provided with personal protective equipment, supervisors were not allowed to mandate mask wearing, the agency did not conduct proper contact tracing among staff and did not require employees to change or sanitize gloves between passengers.
"Every effort was made to convince our leadership to give us the latitude to roll out personal protective equipment. That didn't happen at that point," Brainard said of requests made in mid-March.
TSA employees are now required to wear masks and gloves, but eye protection is still optional, according to TSA.
The TSA issued new operating procedures to help protect people from contracting the virus. The new rules went into effect last week. Brainard told NPR the new rules do not do enough.
"The bottom line is the new procedures in place do not adequately address the prevention of the spread of the coronavirus," he said.
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