The ousted director of a key U.S. agency charged with developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday said he was dismissed because he called for careful vetting of a treatment frequently touted by President Donald Trump.
Gavino Garay has more.
A top doctor overseeing the U.S. agency charged with developing vaccines and therapies says he was removed for pushing back on the Trump administration's promotion of an anti-malaria drug as a possible treatment of the coronavirus.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "A drug called chloroquine..." Dr. Rick Bright said in a statement that he was replaced as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and reassigned to a new role because he resisted efforts to push hydroxychloroquine and the related chloroquine as cures for COVID-19 (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "I've never heard of him." At the White House coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday night, Trump declined to weigh in on whether Bright had been pushed out: (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING: "When did this happen?
May be he was, maybe he wasn't." Bright made the statement via law firm, Katz, Marshall & Banks, known for representing whistleblowers.
Bright said the government tried to push the medications without scientific "merit" adding quote: "While I am prepared to look at all options and to think 'outside the box' for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public." Trump has repeatedly promoted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as game changing treatments for COVID-19, even though doctors said the drugs' effectiveness were unproven and further tests were required.
In fact, according to an analysis that has been submitted for expert review, the drug provided no benefit and posed a potentially higher risk of death for patients at U.S. veterans hospitals.