
Deposed BARDA chief blasts Trump administration on promoting unproven drugs as Covid-19 panacea: 'Science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way'
A day after news broke that the head of BARDA, the government agency at the center of a national effort to develop vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, had been removed from his post, the now former director is speaking out against the Trump administration, saying that he was forced out for resisting political pressure to fund unproven drugs that have been pushed by the president and his allies.
In a lengthy statement first obtained by The New York Times, Rick Bright said that he was removed for resisting pressure to invest the agency’s resources into hydroxychloroquine, a malaria treatment that President Trump has pushed over the advice of public health officials, including the NIH, who say it is unproven and in some cases can be harmful. Bright’s departure was first reported by STAT.
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