Dr. Rick Bright has been lauded as one of the best and brightest in the world of vaccine development. On Tuesday, healthcare news website Stat News reported Dr. Bright had left his post as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. That agency is the part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and it is responsible for overseeing the development of vaccines for deadly viruses like COVID-19 and a whole host of other just as potential deadly public health issues like chemical, biological, and nuclear threats.
Dr. Bright’s departure right in the midst of a global health crisis certainly raised eyebrows. His entire career has been spent in vaccine development. Stat News said his departure “couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time.”
Turns out, Dr. Bright was dismissed from his job at the time he was needed the most. All because he pushed for far more rigorous testing of the drug Trump and Fox News were pushing. Dr. Bright’s comments are nothing short of alarming:
“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,” Dr. Bright said.
In a statement to Maggie Haberman at The New York Times, Bright said, “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.”
Dr. Bright did not pull any punches and noted that the Trump administration dismissing him at this critical moment will cost lives. This really is a must-read statement.
“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,” he 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,” Dr. Bright said, describing what ultimately happened: “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,” Dr. Bright said.
Donald Trump’s narcissism and incompetence is quite seriously getting people killed, something Dr. Bright also noted in his statement.
“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.”
Dr. Bright should immediately be returned to the role he’s been preparing for his entire life. And while Dr. Bright is asking the HHS inspector general to investigate his dismissal, Congress should immediately launch an investigation of their own. This is the absolute worst kind of political cronyism in the middle of the worst public health emergency in decades.
Hats off to Dr. Bright for having the courage to speak out.
