April 22, 2020 / Matt Perez, Forbes Staff
TOPLINE
Dr. Rick Bright, who was up until Tuesday the director of the United States agency leading development of a COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine, said he was dismissed from his role after insisting the government invest in vaccines and resist funding drugs promoted by President Trump, according to the New York Times.
KEY FACTS
- As reported by STAT on Tuesday, Bright was transitioned from his director role at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to a more minor role at the National Institutes of Health.
- In an interview Wednesday with the Times, he said he believed his transition was politically-motivated because he expressed skepticism about unproven medical treatments promoted by President Trump.
- “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,” Bright told the Times.
- Bright specifically “limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit.”
