HHS doctor says he was demoted for pushing for evidence for use of hydroxychloroquine touted by Trump
by Cassidy Morrison
| April 22, 2020 04:27 PM
Dr. Rick Bright, who headed the Health and Human Services agency tasked with creating a coronavirus vaccine, said that he was demoted after pushing for more evidence regarding hydroxychloroquine, the drug touted by President Trump as a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Bright was removed from his job as the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority this week, according to the New York Times, which he attributed to his "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."
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has played up the promise of the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as coronavirus treatments despite a lack of clinical trials showing that they are effective in treating COVID-19.
“These drugs have potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality observed in some recent studies in patients with Covid-19," Bright said.
Before he was given another post at the National Institutes of Health, Bright had served as BARDA director for about four years. He told the New York Times, "Science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way."
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/hhs-doctor-says-he-was-demoted-for-pushing-for-evidence-for-use-of-hydroxychloroquine-touted-by-trump
