Washington: The head of a government agency combating the coronavirus pandemic in the United States has questioned his ouster. He has alleged that he was shunted out for opposing political efforts to promote a malaria drug that President Donald Trump touted. He said Trump did so without proof as a remedy for COVID-19.
Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), said Wednesday that he was summarily dismissed. He said he was removed from his job Tuesday and reassigned to a lesser role. His lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, called it ‘retaliation plain and simple’.
Controversy has swirled around the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine since Trump started promoting it. BARDA, the agency that Bright formerly headed, is a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services. It has been created to counter threats from bioterrorism and infectious diseases. It has recently been trying to jump-start work on a vaccine for the coronavirus.
“I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way,” Bright said in a statement. He has a doctoral degree in immunology, said his lawyers.
“Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. Both were promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,” Bright asserted. “I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections,” he added.
Trump said he ‘never heard of him’ when he was asked about Bright in Thursday’s briefing. “The guy says he was pushed out of a job. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. … I don’t know who he is,” Trump added.
Bright and his lawyers are requesting investigations by the HHS inspector general and by the Office of Special Counsel. The latter is an independent agency which has as part of its charge the protection of government whistleblowers.
“I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments. However, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright wrote in the statement. He also alluded to ‘clashes with HHS political leadership’ over his efforts to ‘invest early in vaccines and supplies’. He said these were critical to save American lives.
One of the major criticisms of the Trump administration’s pandemic response is that little was done in the month of February to stockpile needed equipment. “Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics,” Bright said.
Trump has repeatedly touted the malaria drug during his regular coronavirus briefings. He has called it a ‘game-changer’ and suggested its skeptics would be proved wrong. He has offered patient testimonials that the drug is a lifesaver. But a recent study of 368 patients in the US veterans’ hospitals found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine – and more deaths.
In a statement, HHS confirmed that Bright is no longer at the BARDA agency. However, it did not address his allegations of political interference in scientific matters. HHS said it was Bright who had requested an emergency use authorisation for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
Hydroxychloroquine was given to patients in the New York area, the nation’s most intense COVID-19 hot spot. It is usually administered in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin.
An official biography describes Bright as a flu and infectious-disease expert. He joined the agency 10 years ago and was focused on vaccine development.
AP
