Christi Grimm is a career official, not an Obama appointee. She began at the IG's office in 1999. She was there for 1+ years of Clinton, 8 years Bush, 8 years Obama, now 3 years Trump. The report on hospital shortages is based on interviews with administrators at 323 hospitals.

The CDC's estimate is 12,469 deaths from H1N1, over a year. There's an estimate range of 8,868-18,306, however, so "17,000" is within it, though it's not clear how he settled on that number. (He said in early March: "They lost at least 13,000. It could be as high as 17,000.")

Correct - the CDC estimate is not a case-by-case count of confirmed deaths, it's a subsequent estimate. Methodology explanation here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5818346/ https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1247551007422386176