A vial of prescription hydroxychloroquine.
REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
The doctor in charge of the federal agency helping to develop a coronavirus vaccine said he was forced out of his job this week because his opposition to use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine that President Donald Trump has casually pushed as a possible treatment for the virus. Until Tuesday, Dr. Richard Bright was the Department of Health and Human Services’ deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response and the head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. Bright says he was removed from both of these roles because he refused to bow to White House pressure to pursue unproven treatments and provide them on demand to the public. “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,” Bright said in a statement Wednesday.
“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,” Bright continued. During the intense, ongoing push to find treatments for the coronavirus, Bright said he and other health officials were pressured to invest in drugs favored by the White House rather than the ones that showed the most potential scientifically. “To this point, I have led the government’s efforts to invest in the best science available to combat the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said. “Unfortunately, this resulted in clashes with HHS political leadership, including criticism for my proactive efforts to invest early in vaccines and supplies critical to saving American lives. I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections.”
From the podium at the White House, Trump has speculated wildly about the potential of hydroxychloroquine when taken with the antibiotic azithromycin, and has pushed to get it approved as a coronavirus treatment. “What do you have to lose?” Trump said on multiple occasions about the drug combination. Preliminary tests have been inconclusive about the drug combo’s effectiveness and there is new data showing it could do far more harm than good. Trump has backed off his public support for the drug, which, following his lead, was plastered on Fox News broadcasts for weeks. The medical professionals around the president—like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx—have not shared Trump’s unbridled public enthusiasm for the unproven treatment, but that hasn’t stopped Trump boosters on the right from weighing in to reassure viewers of Dr. Trump’s correctness. “The president was right, and frankly Fauci was wrong,” Fox News host Lou Dobbs said last month on his show after Fauci balked at the widespread use of experimental medicines.
When asked about Bright’s reassignment Wednesday, Trump, as he loves to do, feigned ignorance. “Maybe he was [removed after raising concerns], maybe he wasn’t. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said. “You’d have to hear the other side.” Bright said he’s sharing his side of the story because “speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science–not politics or cronyism–has to lead the way.” He said he will file a report with the HHS inspector general to “investigate the manner in which this Administration has politicized the work of [the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority] and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections as well as efforts that lack scientific merit.”
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