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Rick Bright, the ousted director of a key government health office, will testify Thursday that the U.S. faces its “darkest winter in modern history” without a stronger response to the coronavirus.
Bright is scheduled to appear on Thursday before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee. In testimony prepared for the hearing, Bright says “our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities.” Read Bright’s statement, as released by House committee.
Bright has alleged he was reassigned from his role as Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority director because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by President Donald Trump as a prospective coronavirus treatment.
Bright says in a complaint filed May 5 that he wants to be reinstated as BARDA director. In his testimony, he reiterates he believes he was removed from the job because he “resisted efforts to promote and enable broad access to an unproven drug, chloroquine, to the American people without transparent information on the potential health risks.”
Caitlin Oakley, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, told MarketWatch in an email: “This is a personnel matter that is currently under review. However, HHS strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint from Dr. Bright.” HHS oversees BARDA.
Bright’s testimony will come two days after Anthony Fauci and other top Trump administration health officials stressed the need for caution and testing while easing coronavirus lockdowns.
“If certain areas prematurely open up, my concern is we might see spikes that turn into outbreaks,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told senators Tuesday.
With state officials gradually restarting businesses after coronavirus lockdowns, Wall Street SPX, -1.74% is still digesting a grim near-term economic outlook. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said, “the recovery may take some time to gather momentum and the passage of time can turn liquidity problems into solvency problems.”
Now read:Dow sheds 2% as Wall Street digests Fed’s grim outlook for economy.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
