Top US Health Official Downplayed Coronavirus Threat, Says Ousted Whistleblower

The ousted director of a US agency responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic filed a whistleblower'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 was filed with the US Office of Special Counsel.

The US coronavirus death toll is the world's highest. Democratic politicians and some Republicans have criticized 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 whistleblowers.

An HHS spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bright, an expert in vaccines and therapeutics, was named to his prior post in 2016 before Trump took office as president.

HHS said last month that Bright had been moved to a public-private partnership under the National Institutes of Health.

Bright said in a statement last month that he was reassigned in part because he resisted efforts to push hydroxychloroquine and the related chloroquine as cures for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.

Bright said in the statement that the US government has promoted the medicines as a "panacea" even though they "clearly lack scientific merit."

Trump repeatedly touted the malaria drugs as a treatment for coronavirus though few studies suggest a possible benefit.

Bright's complaint seeks his reinstatement and requests a full investigation.

In his complaint, Bright says his tensions with HHS leadership predated the coronavirus. Since 2017 he had been protesting "cronyism and award of contracts to companies with political connections to the administration," the complaint says.

The Office of Special Counsel, an independent US government agency, investigates and can prosecute abuses against federal employees.

—Jan Wolfe

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