Rick Bright: We Need a Non-Political Way To Track Viruses
Rick Bright put his career on the line last year when he blew the whistle on how then US President Donald Trump’s administration was handling the coronavirus pandemic. Bright, who was then director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) — which is responsible for countermeasures against pandemics, bioterrorism, and other health emergencies — was abruptly removed from the agency. Now, he is trying his hand at curbing outbreaks from outside the government, where he is focusing on genomic surveillance of viruses.
Bright’s formal whistle-blower complaint, filed in May 2020, alleged that the Trump administration was ignoring his budget requests aimed at mitigating COVID-19, and was awarding pandemic-response contracts to companies on the basis of political connections. But it was Bright’s vocal opposition to Trump’s promotion of the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, unproved against COVID-19, that allegedly led to his removal from BARDA. At a congressional hearing in May, Bright warned: “If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged.”
