Ousted US official to warn of ‘darkest winter’
Rick Bright, a former top vaccine official removed from his post last month, will testify to Congress today that the United States faces the ‘‘darkest winter in modern history’’ if it does not develop a more co-ordinated national response to the coronavirus before an expected resurgence later this year.
‘‘Our window of opportunity is closing,’’ Bright says in prepared testimony submitted to a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. ‘‘If we fail to develop a national co-ordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. While it is terrifying to acknowledge the extent of the challenge that we currently confront, the undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of the Covid19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system. Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.’’
The first priority, he says, is being ‘‘truthful with the American people.’’
‘‘They want the truth. They can handle the truth,’’ Bright says.
Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was removed April 20 after having served in the position for nearly four years, and transferred to a narrower role at the National Institutes of Health.
In his prepared testimony, Bright also touches on a whistleblower complaint in which he asserted he was pressured by Department of Health and Human Services leadership to make ‘‘potentially harmful drugs widely available,’’ including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly heralded.
‘‘I believe this transfer was 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,’’ Bright says.
Bright is scheduled to appear at a hearing tomorrow morning at the invitation of Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-calif., who chairs the health subcommittee. Debra Katz, an attorney for Bright, confirmed last week that Bright plans to appear despite being under ‘‘massive stress’’ in the wake of his transfer.
His appearance adds to a dramatic week of testimony on Capitol.
On Wednesday, Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, and other Trump administration health officials warned the United States risks new coronavirus outbreaks and possibly a broad resurgence nationwide if states and cities reopen too quickly.
In his prepared testimony, Bright argues that ‘‘it is painfully clear that we were not as prepared as we should have been’’ to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
‘‘We missed early warning signals, and we forgot important pages from our pandemic playbook,’’ he says. ‘‘There will be plenty of time to identify gaps for improvement. For now, we need to focus on getting things right going forward.’’
He says the Trump administration still lacks a national testing strategy and needs to ramp up production of essential equipment and supplies.
In his 89-page whistleblower complaint filed last week, Bright portrays himself as an administration health official trying to sound the alarm about the virus beginning in early January. He said he called for the rapid development of treatments and vaccines, as well as the stockpiling of additional N95 face masks and ventilators, at a time when HHS political leadership, including Secretary Alex Azar, appeared to him to be underestimating the threat.
– Washington Post