Native Kansan tells stumpy to fuck off... [View all]

TOPEKA — A Hutchinson native who began sounding alarms in mid-January over the need for more N95 masks, testing supplies and other equipment that would be needed in the imminent pandemic is scheduled to testify before Congress this week, days after filing a damning whistleblower report.

Rick Bright says he was reassigned as director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for resisting pressure to promote dangerous drugs touted by President Donald Trump as possible cures for COVID-19, pushing for a more aggressive response to the pandemic, and questioning the meritless awarding of contracts to the president’s political cronies.

On Friday, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel moved to temporarily block Bright’s departure from BARDA based on evidence provided in his 89-page complaint.

Bright was removed from his position on April 20 after confirming for a journalist the dangers of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and providing supporting documentation that included email exchanges among Health and Human Services officials.

“Bright hoped that by shining a light on HHS’s reckless and dangerous push to make these drug available, American lives would be saved,” his attorneys wrote in the complaint.

The internationally recognized expert in immunology, therapeutic intervention, vaccine development and pandemic preparedness had served as director of BARDA since November 2016. Before arriving at HHS in 2010, he worked in the biotech industry and was recruited by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003 to develop testing to combat avian flu.

In late March, Congress passed a massive spending package for COVID-19 response that allocated $3.5 billion directly to BARDA. Bright’s complaint asserts the appropriation intensified hostilities between Bright and his HHS boss, Robert Kadlec, by making it more difficult for Kadlec to siphon funds for companies that have connections to the Trump administration.

As the president and HHS leaders promoted hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, as a potential cure for COVID-19 in an apparent attempt to score a short-term political victory, Bright resisted pressure to accept or invest in the drug.



https://www.salina.com/news/20200509/kansas-native-inside-us-health-agency-pushed-for-more-masks-testing-supplies