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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHead of vaccine agency says he was ousted for resisting hydroxychloroquine
Nicole is talking about this right now
Rick Bright, the director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told the New York Times in a statement Wednesday that he believes he was removed from his role this week after clashing with HHS leadership over his attempts to limit the use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus.
Why it matters: President Trump and his allies in conservative media have repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as a potential game-changer for treating the coronavirus. Health experts have taken a more cautious approach, noting that the drug has shown anecdotal promise but that its efficacy has not yet been proven.
In a statement, Bright wrote:
I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science not politics or cronyism has to lead the way. ...
My professional background has prepared me for a moment like this to confront and defeat a deadly virus that threatens Americans and people around the globe. To this point, I have led the governments efforts to invest in the best science available to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, this resulted in clashes with H.H.S. political leadership, including criticism for my proactive efforts to invest early into vaccines and supplies critical to saving American lives. I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.
Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit.
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. I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed Covid-19 while under the supervision of a physician.
These drugs have potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality observed in some recent studies in patients with Covid-19.
Sidelining me in the middle of this pandemic and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address this urgent public health crisis.
I will request that the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections and efforts that lack scientific merit.
Rushing blindly towards unproven drugs can be disastrous and result in countless more deaths. Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics.
https://www.axios.com/hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus-vaccine-doctor-02f1430c-6c44-43fc-abab-56f2716c6d5a.html
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)writes3000
(4,734 posts)How pervasively CORRUPT is this administration?
Kingofalldems
(38,452 posts)And he needs to be asked about it this evening. He'll lie of course but the questions need to start.
stillrockin67
(29 posts)Why would you assume he would lie? The Trump Impeachment whistle-blower wrote truthfully and I assumed he would testify truthfully.
Kingofalldems
(38,452 posts)Reread and think Trump and his daily shitshow.
dalton99a
(81,455 posts)Tanuki
(14,918 posts)mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Lady Freedom Returns
(14,120 posts)He's pushing for it to hard.
crickets
(25,963 posts)Now he's stuck with it. Typical.
DENVERPOPS
(8,813 posts)of the head of the drug company making it............
Not surprisingly the asshole was a major donor of campaign cash to Trump and he also gave Trump several other "in kind" large gifts of money in the past few years.......
SouthernCal_Dem
(852 posts)the only thing available in the national stockpile will be nothing more than millions of doses of useless hydroxychloroquine.
crickets
(25,963 posts)ResistantAmerican17
(3,803 posts)Fuck em. All of em. And fuck every brain dead piece of shit that supports this murderous regime. I hope to Odin they all pay the price -prison is too good for them. In conclusion, fuck the whole grifting family and their thieving cronies- nothing but opportunistic douchebags of pustular necrotic foreskins.
2naSalit
(86,569 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,999 posts)Greed Over People, what does that spell?
Public relations over science, what outcome does that forecast?
yaesu
(8,020 posts)proud patriot
(100,705 posts)Vindictive AssHOLE !
Stuart G
(38,420 posts)Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)Nice one.
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)Blue Owl
(50,351 posts)n/t