Dr. Bright files complaint alleging COVID-19 warnings were ignored

The ousted director of the office, Dr. Rick Bright, a member of the team developing a vaccine for COVID-19, officially filled a general whistleblower complaint on Tuesday claiming his early warnings about the seriousness of the virus ignored by the administration and his attention at a treatment favored by Trump led his removal.

Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of the office involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine, formally filed an extensive whistleblower complaint today alleging his early warnings about the coronavirus were ignored. @Kevinliptakcnn @JDiamond1 https://t.co/GRulH7tRiC

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 5, 2020

Bright said that the higher authorities pressurized him to let politics, and due to the excessive of cronyism, it drives decisions over the best scientists’ opinions they have in government. He raised crucial concerns about lack of critical health care supplies such as masks, gowns, sanitizers, to his seniors in the administration of Trump, but unfortunately, he met with cynicism and surprise.

Whereas the doctor said that some officials, including Peter Navarro, the White House top trade adviser shared his concerns – he describes a general deficiency of action at the upper level of administration even as the coronavirus spreading rapidly outside of China.

Bright scheduled to testify before Capitol Hill

Since 2016, Dr. Bright led the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority (BARDA), when the officials reallocated last month to an important position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). On Tuesday, Bright’s attorney told reporters that the officials scheduled him to appear before Capitol Hill next week. Anna Eshoo, the Democratic representative of California and the chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee of the House, said that she planned last month to call in Bright to appear before her panel as she analyses his removal circumstances.

Bright said in his whistleblower complaint, he raised concerns about the United States preparation for COVID-19 starting in January, but he met with inconsequence which then established into aggression by leaders at the Health & Human Services Department. (HHS). Later, Bright said he pushed back on the leadership of HHS when they wanted to make possibly harmful drugs to treat coronavirus patients, such as hydroxychloroquine, that frequently touted by Donald Trump as a probable cure regardless of the lack of robust testing.

Rick Bright’s efforts to prioritize safety and science over biased convenience and to expose harmful practices that posed a considerable risk to the health and safety of pubic, specifically as it applied to hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, festered those in the administration who wanted to continue to push his wrong narrative, according to the complaint.

The spokesman of HHS stated that Dr. Bright transferred to the National Institutes of Health to work on diagnostics testing of a novel coronavirus, where he assigned to spend upwards of one billion dollars to advance that effort. Caitlin Oakley, the spokeswoman, said that they extremely saddened that he didn’t embarrassed to work on behalf of the United States people and lead on his critical attempt.

Dr. Bright on sick leave, under his doctor’s direction – Bright’s spokeswoman

Kendra Barkoff Lamy, the spokeswoman of Bright, pushed back against the characterization of the Health and Human Services. On Twitter, she said that the authorities did not give any particulars about his new task or what his new job would demand. However, under the direction of his doctor, Bright is on sick leave because of hypertension after this current situation.

Dr. Bright has not been given any details about his new assignment or what his new job would entail; nonetheless, under his doctor’s direction, he has been on sick leave due to hypertension caused by this current situation. https://t.co/U6Cl3qbAI6

— Kendra Barkoff Lamy (@kabarkoff) May 5, 2020

Last month, the decision of Bright to go public with his concerns exposed a few months of chaos inside one of the key partitions at the Health and Human Services department charged with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. His charges raised serious questions about unfair political creeping into the response of the government to the outbreak and the extent to which the preferences of Trump for a treatment dominated its scientific merits.

After Bright initially aired his allegations, the officials of administration leveled a range of accusations against him, including accusing his poor managing capabilities of his office, failing to look up his seniors on significant decisions, and mistreating his junior staff. However, the most recent performance review of Bright from May 2019, a copy of which got by CNN, brought admiring reviews for the management of his office and included zero criticisms.

The removal of Bright from his post is the violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act

Bright’s attorneys argue that his removal from his designation amounts to the defilement of the Whistleblower Protection Act, claiming that Bright involved in several occasions of protected activity. In the claim, he says that he is looking for restoration as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority and asking for a comprehensive investigation.

He claims that leaders at the agency amazed by his concerns and responded slowly to the pandemic, claiming old clashes with the leadership of HHS – including Secretary Robert Kadlec and Alex Azar, the assistant secretary for preparation and response – worsened by clashes over the COVID-19 and that he ultimately excluded from joining meetings about the virus.

Bright pressed for instant access to funding, clinical and personnel cases, including viruses, which he stressed all critically essential to start development of lifesaving drugs needed in the potential event that coronavirus spread outside of Southeast Asia, the complaint said. Dr. Kadlec and Secretary Azar replied with surprise at dire forecasts and urgency of Dr. Bright and declared that the U.S. would able to contain the virus and keep it out of the U.S.

The persistent demands of Dr. Bright for urgent action to respond pandemic led him exclusion from crucial discussions

Later, Dr. Bright says that he was no longer attending the crucial meetings of raising an early alarm about the coronavirus. It was clear that the persistent demands of Bright for rapid action to respond to the outbreak cause a shit storm and a disorder and were not welcome in the HHS Secretary office. Therefore, the leadership of HHS excluded Dr. Bright and the Biomedical Advanced Research & Development Authority from these repeated meetings as well as from the critical discussions about addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Central to the warnings of Bright was his major concern at a shortage of face masks in America, which finally authorize when federal officials scrambled to protect shielding face coverings for health care workers. He mentions an email of January from the co-owner o a key mask production company saying he was keen to restart idled N95 mask production lines with the assistance of federal government, an offer that goes ignored.

Describing meetings in which Dr. Bright said that his concerns ignore by senior officials. It became progressively clear that the leadership of HHS was doing anything to make them ready for the forthcoming face mask shortage. Afterward, he said that he received an email with an ominous warning from the masked producer. The email read, rick, we are in deep shit. “The world.”

As the pandemic keep on, Dr. Bright says he came under big pressure from the political leadership at the Health & Human Services to make hydroxychloroquine broadly available after the United States President constantly announced its possible benefits during the White House daily press briefings. At one stage, Trump said that he would take medicine himself to defend against the pandemic, although scientists said its no evidence of its defending effects against COVID-19.

Top HHS officials pressurize Bright to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine widely available

By mid-March, major HHS officials pressurize Dr. Bright and other officials to make hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine extensively available to the public. According to the complaint of Bright, General Counsel of HHS, Bob Charrow directed him to prioritize making the drug widely available. In the following days, Bright says that he urged his colleagues against a widely-based protocol that would make the medicine available to U.S. nationals outside of clinical settings but as an alternative to implementing an Emergency Use Authorization that would make the treatment available in hospitals.

However, even after the approval, Bright reports, health experts continued to face maximum pressure to make the medication more extensively available. The White House’s COVID-19 testing czar, Adm. Brett Giroir, said that the drug must go to the drugstores as well for the common public. Now, the drug is approved so that it can be prescribed as per the orders of the doctor. It is an ultimate answer, Giroir wrote in the email attached to the complaint of Bright.