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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