Ousted scientist says ‘window of opportunity’ to fight coronavirus is closing

• By Brian Naylor/NPR

 

Richard Bright, a career government scientist-turned whistleblower, will tell a congressional panel Thursday that without a stronger federal response, the coronavirus threatens to make 2020 the “darkest winter in modern history.”

Bright is testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, which called the hearing after Bright filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel.

Bright contends he was removed from his post as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority by top officials at the Department of Health and Human Services “in response to my insistence that the government invest funding allocated to BARDA by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” according to his prepared testimony, released Tuesday by the subcommittee.

Bright says his testimony is to be “forward looking,” and that he is speaking out “because science — not politics or cronyism — must lead the way to combat this deadly virus.”

Bright contends his transfer to a lower ranking post at HHS because of his reluctance to promote use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with COVID-19, which had been touted by President Trump and others.

Trump has dismissed Bright as “a disgruntled employee who’s trying to help the Democrats win an election.”

In his written opening statement, Bright paints a gloomy picture unless the Trump administration responds more quickly and more strongly to the coronavirus.

“It is painfully clear that we were not as prepared as we should have been,” Bright says. “We missed early warning signals and we forgot important pages from our pandemic playbook.”

Bright warns, “Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities.”

“The undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of the COVID-19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system,” he says. “Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”

Bright’s attorneys say the Office of Special Counsel has determined there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that his removal from his post at BARDA was retaliatory and therefore prohibited.

The OSC says it can’t comment on an open case.