Rick Bright, a whistleblower and former director of a federal program working with industry and academia to expand a Covid-19 vaccine, alleged that the Trump administration “silenced” scientists and “resisted” competitive measures at the start of the pandemic to mitigate the spread. of the virus in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper two days after his resignation from the National Institutes of Health Array and criticized one of the few concrete moves cited through the White House as evidence of his effective reaction to the crisis: his restrictions traveling in China.
Bright filed a whistleblowing complaint after being dismissed as director of the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority, which he said because of his opposition to the Trump administration’s strain to treat Covid-19 patients with now refuted chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine remedies.
On Tuesday, Bright resigned from his position at the National Institutes of Health on the grounds that he was “excluded from any additional paint to combat this fatal virus,” according to one of his lawyers.
“By lying to the American public and not telling us the full truth, it’s really prolonging duration and has an effect on this pandemic,” Bright said Thursday. “He’s really allowing more people to die. “
The February travel ban, which President Trump promoted and was cited through Vice President Mike Pence during his Wednesday night debate, was “insufficient,” Bright said, because beyond the fact that the disease was already beyond containment, “we were not doing anything else to plan mitigation. “
Bright characterized Trump’s insistence that “momentarily” a vaccine will be obtained despite “irresponsible and reckless” estimates to the contrary, and insisted that the administration “let scientists do their job. “
In reaction to Trump’s recent tweet that said, “Don’t be afraid of Covid,” Bright called it “probably the most reckless and deadly fact I’ve ever heard. “
“I think President Trump and this administration have let America down,” Bright said. “Many lives have been lost that we may have simply prevented. And there are many more lives that we are going to lose this winter that may have been shunned if only we had strong leadership, we only had the facts and the transparency coming from our White House and others. people who lead by example. So it’s a scam not to do that. “
At the time of the whistleblower’s complaint, Trump said he “never knew or heard from him,” Bright, but that he was a “disgruntled employee. “
Trump has promoted hydroxychloroquine throughout the pandemic, even though many studies find useless advantages over Covid-19 and, instead, significant side effects from its use. After Trump announced that he contracted the virus on October 2, he was given another 3 drugs, none of which were hydroxychloroquine.
While covid-19 was known to have spread to China in January, the federal government was largely inactive in February until Trump declared a national emergency on March 13. Even then, the White House has been criticized for its slowness in addressing staff shortages. equipment for fitness personnel and widespread testing, and to press too temporarily for states to reverse counter-infection measures in order to revive the economy. While the United States accounts for only 4% of the world’s population, the country has only about 21% of the total showed cases of coronavirus with about 7. 6 million and 20% of international deaths with 212,000.
Full policy and updates on Coronavirus
I’m one of the latest news and I also report on the video game industry. I have already written for sites like IGN, Polygon, Red Bull eSports, Kill Screen, Playboy and PC Gamer.
I can see the latest news and also report on the video game industry. I have already written for sites like IGN, Polygon, Red Bull eSports, Kill Screen, Playboy and PC Gamer. I also controlled a YouTube game channel under the so-called strummerdood. I received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Rowan University and did an internship at Philadelphia Magazine. You can follow me on Twitter @mattryanperez.