US ignored coronavirus warnings, says ousted vaccine director Rick Bright in whistle-blower complaint
- Top health official Alex Azar and others reacted with hostility and played down threat when alerted about pandemic, document states
- Bright previously said he was removed from post for refusing to push Trump-backed drugs for treatment of Covid-19
The ousted director of a US agency responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic filed a whistle-blower’s complaint on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of retaliating when he raised concerns.
Rick Bright says in the complaint filed with a government watchdog that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and other high-ranking officials in the agency.
“Dr Bright acted with urgency to begin to address this pandemic but encountered resistance from HHS leadership, including Secretary Azar, who appeared intent on downplaying this catastrophic threat,” reads the complaint, which his lawyers filed with the US Office of Special Counsel.
The US coronavirus death toll, now over 70,000, is the world’s highest. Democratic politicians and some fellow Republicans have criticised Trump for playing down the threat of the virus.
Bright’s lawyers argue that his removal as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a division of HHS, violated a federal law protecting government whistle-blowers.