“A
senior US government doctor who worked on the search for a coronavirus vaccine
has claimed he was fired after resisting Donald Trump’s push to use the
unproven drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
“Rick
Bright was this week ousted as director of the US health department’s
Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or Barda, and as the deputy assistant secretary
for preparedness and response.
“In
a stunningly candid statement, Bright highlighted his refusal to embrace
hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug relentlessly promoted by the president and
Fox News despite a lack of scientific studies.
“‘Specifically,
and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine
and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which
clearly lack scientific merit,’ Bright said. ‘While I am prepared to look at
all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly
resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.’
“Asked
about Bright at the White House coronavirus briefing on Wednesday, Trump said: ‘I never heard of him. If a guy
says he was pushed out of a job, maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t. You’d have to
hear the other side. I don’t know who he is.’
“Trump repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as
therapy for coronavirus, pointing to a Democratic state representative in
Michigan who claimed it benefited her and frequently asking: ‘What do you have
to lose?’
“But
on Tuesday an analysis of the drug’s use in US veterans hospitals found no benefit. Bright added: ‘I insisted
that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed
Covid-19 while under the supervision of a physician. These drugs have
potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality
observed in some recent studies in patients with Covid-19. Sidelining me in the
middle of this pandemic and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts
lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address
this urgent public health crisis.’
“Bright
has reportedly hired lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, whose clients have
included government whistleblowers and Christine Blasey Ford, who went public
with allegations of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh during
his supreme court nomination in 2018.
“On
Wednesday, Ronald Klain, who led the Obama administration’s response to an
Ebola outbreak in 2014, tweeted: ‘Dr Bright is a professional – an
expert on vaccines – who I met during the Ebola response. If this is true, it …
represents an ongoing effort by the Trump administration to put politics ahead
of science and safety.’
“Dr
Bright said he would request that the health department inspector general
investigate the way in which the Trump administration has ‘politicized the
work of Barda, and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund
companies with political connections and efforts that lack scientific merit. Rushing
blindly towards unproven drugs can be disastrous and result in countless more
deaths. Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people,
must always trump politics.’
“Bright,
whose entire career had been spent in vaccine development, had led Barda since
2016. He was moved to a less influential post at the National Institutes of
Health. He told the New York Times: ‘I believe this transfer was in response to
my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated 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. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus,
science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way.’”
This is beyond sad. I fear for the US, being led by ignorance and malice.
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