Vaccine Doc: Trump Fired Me For Questioning His Drug

The New York Times reports:

Dr. Rick Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, and as the deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response. Instead, he was given a narrower job at the National Institutes of Health.

“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,” he said in a statement to The Times’s Maggie Haberman.

“I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way,” he said. The White House declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Alex Azar, the health and human services secretary, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

There SO much more at the link. No paywall.

The doctor who led the federal agency involved in developing a coronavirus vaccine says he was removed from his post after he pressed for a rigorous vetting of a coronavirus treatment embraced by Trump. ⁦@maggieNYT⁩ https://t.co/KsWiExgUIk

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) April 22, 2020

Breaking News: A doctor who led a U.S. agency helping to develop a coronavirus vaccine says he was removed because he questioned the promotion of hydroxychloroquine, a drug endorsed by President Trump without rigorous vetting https://t.co/WShFySmZuv https://t.co/LeiAnBnUXS

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 22, 2020