US Health Department’s Caputo has cancer: spokesperson
Michael Caputo, who is on a 60-day leave from his role as spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after accusing government scientists of sedition, has metastatic cancer, said friend and N.Y. Assemblyman David DiPietro.
Caputo, 58, went on medical leave last week after posting, then deleting, a bizarre Facebook rant espousing conspiracy theories about left-wing hit squads coming to get him, while accusing coronavirus researchers of “sedition” and advising likeminded right-wingers to load-up on ammunition.
“When Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin," Caputo warned.
He had been under pressure for allegedly interfering with CDC reports concerning the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, which the Trump administration has been widely accused of mishandling.
Despite denials of negligence by the President, the nation’s death rate from the virus topped 200,000 Wednesday.
The seriousness of Caputo’s alleged malady is not clear.
“After surgery last week at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, doctors diagnosed Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo with squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat,” reads the statement from DiPietro, who is serving as a representative for the Caputo family.
DiPietro, who lives in East Aurora, NY, said Caputo is home in Western New York “resting in the loving arms of his family, under the watchful eye of Jesus Christ.”
Caputo is from Buffalo, which is roughly 20 miles from East Aurora.
That statement also thanked President Trump for his support and urged the public not to let the pandemic interfere with regular medical checkups, “especially cancer screenings.”
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