People wearing protective masks stand in front of their closed business on May 13, 2020 in the Coney Island neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough in New York City. (AFP photo)
America faces the "darkest winter in modern history" unless leaders act decisively to prevent a rebound of the coronavirus, says a government whistleblower who alleges he was ousted from his job after warning the Trump administration to prepare for the pandemic.
Immunologist Dr. Rick Bright makes his sobering prediction in testimony prepared for his appearance Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Aspects of his complaint about early administration handling of the crisis are expected to be backed up by testimony from an executive of a company that manufactures, respirator masks.
A federal watchdog agency has found "reasonable grounds" that Bright was removed from his post as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority after sounding the alarm at the Department of Health and Human Services. Bright alleged he became a target of criticism when he urged early efforts to invest in vaccine development and stock up on supplies.
"Our window of opportunity is closing," Bright says in his prepared testimony posted on the House committee website. "If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities."
Brights testimony follows this weeks warning by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the governments top infectious disease expert, that a rushed lifting of store-closing and stay-at-home restrictions could "turn back the clock," seeding more suffering and death and complicating efforts to get the economy rolling again.
US President Donald Trump has dismissed Bright as "a disgruntled guy," and some of the presidents political allies have urged that Fauci be fired, although that seems unlikely.
More than 83,000 people have died in the U.S., representing more than one-fourth of global deaths and the worlds highest toll. On the planet more than 4.3 million have been infected and about 295,000 have died.
Trump has been urging states to lift restrictions, and many governors are doing so gradually, though consumers remain leery of going back to restaurants, social events and sporting competitions.
In his prepared testimony, Bright said, "The undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of (COVID-19) this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system."
"Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history," Bright wrote.
As part of his whistleblower complaint, Bright is seeking to be reinstated in his old job. HHS, his employer, says it strongly disagrees with his allegations and that it reassigned him to a high-profile position helping to lead the development of new coronavirus tests at the National Institutes of Health.
BARDA, the agency Bright worked at for 10 years, was created to help the government respond to bioterrorism, infectious diseases, and radiological attacks. It focuses on developing and procuring counter-measures such as vaccines and treatments. Prior to his reassignment Bright had received an "outstanding" performance review.
He says friction with HHS leaders escalated after he opposed widespread use of hydroxycholoroquine, a malaria drug that Trump touted without proof as a "game-changer" for treating COVID-19 patients. Subsequent studies have indicated the drug may do more harm than good. Bright was summarily removed in late April.
One aspect of Brights complaint is expected to get backing at Thursdays hearing from an executive of a Texas company that manufactures N95 respirator masks. Michael Bowen, executive vice president of Prestige Ameritech, emailed with Bright repeatedly starting in late January. Bowen offered to crank up production lines that were sitting idle, while warning that the world supply of masks was being snapped up by other countries. Bright said in his complaint that it took five weeks to move the federal bureaucracy.
In written testimony to the committee, Bowen said Bright and other BARDA directors hed worked with previously all wanted to address a chronic problem of not enough masks in the government stockpile, "but in my opinion didnt have enough authority."
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, America was told that restrictive "governmental silos had been torn down ... so that different federal agencies could work together for national security," Bowen added. "But I didnt see evidence of that."
(Source: AP)
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/17505
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