In a scathing letter, the former director of the federal agency overseeing the development of a coronavirus vaccine claims he was removed from his post following clashes with Trump administration officials over their pushing of unproven and potentially dangerous coronavirus treatments.
Bright was alluding to efforts President Donald Trump and a number of his supporters in government and the media have made in recent weeks to promote hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus miracle drug.
Bright led the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the agency leading the push for vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, until he was demoted Tuesday into a lesser role within the National Institutes of Health.
Trump said Wednesday that he had “never heard” of Bright.
“The guy says he was pushed out of a job. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. You’d have to hear the other side. I don’t know who he is,” the president said at his daily press briefing.
