Eric Zuesse
An 89-page “U.S. Office of Special Counsel Complaint & Disclosure Form,” published on May 5th, by the Office of Special Counsel of the United States of America, has been filed by the lawyer Debra Katz, representing Dr. Rick Bright, the leading federal scientist responsible for advising on control against epidemics. His title is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is a component of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Below are excerpts from this document. Where it refers to “Kadlec,” that is Dr. Bright’s former boss, Dr. Robert Kadlec, who is the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, at HHS, and who was appointed by Donald Trump and assumed his office at HHS on 18 August 2017.
This document details the events that led up to Dr. Bright’s having been, in effect, fired by the Trump Administration, and is a whistleblower complaint. Presented here are only readily understandable highlights, and avoiding parts which pertain to the specific U.S. laws that the complaint cites as having been violated by the Trump Administration.
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https://www.kmblegal.com/sites/default/files/NEW%20R.%20Bright%20OSC%20Complaint_Redacted.pdf
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/6930-rick-bright-complaint/2a40…
January 23, 2020, Dr. Kadlec finally convened a DLG meeting.10 During the meeting, Dr. Bright emphasized BARDA’s urgent need for virus samples and a major infusion of funds for development of diagnostics, drugs and vaccines. He also expressed concerns about the shortage of N95 masks, which he correctly anticipated would cause a health care crisis among first responders and health care providers. Disturbingly, Dr. Kadlec plowed through the abbreviated meeting, addressing topics in a perfunctory manner and paying short shrift to the concerns that Dr. Bright raised. Also on January 23, 2020, Dr. Bright attended a meeting with HHS senior leadership across all agencies to brief Secretary Azar on COVID-19. Anticipating the urgency and magnitude of the threat and knowing the lead times needed to develop new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines, Dr. Bright pressed for urgent access to funding, personnel, and clinical specimens, including viruses, which he emphasized were all critically necessary to begin development of lifesaving medicines needed in the likely event that the virus spread outside of Southeast Asia. Secretary Azar and Dr. Kadlec responded with surprise at Dr. Bright’s dire predictions and urgency, and asserted that the United States would be able to contain the virus and keep it out of the United States. …
It became increasingly clear to Dr. Bright that HHS leadership was doing nothing to prepare for the imminent mask shortage, which Dr. Bright correctly recognized would hinder the ability of medical care providers and first responders to respond to this impending medical crisis. Accordingly, on that same day, January 25, 2020, Dr. Bright emailed Dr. Johnson and Dr. Disbrow about considering providing financial support to Prestige Ameritech to reopen its defunct factories. Dr. Johnson responded that he thought masks were within SNS’s purview and budget. Nonetheless, Dr. Bright was skeptical that the SNS would move with the necessary urgency. That evening, Dr. Bright alerted Dr. Kadlec of the problem and encouraged him to accelerate a solution: “Hearing face mask supply is also getting very low as China and HK trying to procure. I’ve alerted cip on this throughout week. May need to consider options here also before things are gone.” See email from R. Bright to B. Kadlec (Jan. 25, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 10. The next morning, Mr. Bowen emailed Dr. Bright that the “U.S. mask supply is at imminent risk.” See email from M. Bowen to R. Bright (Jan. 26, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 11. Dr. Bright forwarded this dire warning to Dr. Kadlec, Dr. Wolf, Dr. Falcon, Dr. Disbrow, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Adams, and others, so they could see the basis for his alarm and insistence that action be taken at once. He wrote, “We have been watching and receiving warnings on this for over a week.” He then encouraged CIP and SNS to “consider an action plan.” Id. Dr. Bright wrote Mr. Bowen that stating: “I know that our critical infrastructure protection team has been in contact with you.” The next morning, Mr. Bowen responded, “I’ve spoken with Laura. Rick, I think we’re in deep shit. The world.” Id. …
Two days later [31 January 2020], Mr. Bowen of Prestige Ameritech sent yet another email to Dr. Bright and Dr. Wolf, once again issuing a dire warning about the imminent mask shortage. Id. Among other things, he advised “[t]his week, we sent 1,000,000 masks to China and Hong Kong. He continued, “[i]n all my years of predicting the US mask supply would one day collapse, I never pictured myself selling masks to China…. I have it from two reliable sources that China has begun telling Chinese mask makers not to let masks leave China.” He concluded, “I think China will cut off masks to the USA. If so, US hospitals are going to have a very rough time, as up to half of the supply is made in China. A horrible situation will become unbearable.” …
On February 7, 2020, the DLG met and, at Dr. Bright’s urging, focused on the topic of masks and respirators. Dr. Bright and Dr. Anita Patel from the CDC reminded DLG members of previous FRMM reviews, models and publications which cited a need for up to 3.5 billion N95 masks to respond to a pandemic. Dr. Bright reiterated that the United States had a significant shortage and raised concerns that the exportation of masks further depleted an already inadequate supply. He insisted that the federal government urgently needed to place orders to ramp up production of N95 masks in order to ensure that health care workers and first responders were adequately protected. This was crucial to ensure their own safety and also to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in hospitals and other medical settings. ASPR supply chain leads pushed back, insisting that there was no indication of a supply chain shortage or of issues with masks, and therefore there was no need to take immediate action. Dr. Bright responded that the country was already seeing shortages in drug stores and online and it was clear that there was going to be a dangerous shortage of masks as the virus continued to spread. Dr. Wolf and Dr. Falcon responded that the plan was to monitor for any supply chain issues and, if needed, ask the CDC to update its guidelines to tell people who “don’t need” masks to not buy them. Dr. Bright responded, “I can’t believe that you can sit there and say that with a straight face. Do you really believe that changing a CDC guideline to tell people not to wear masks would reduce the panic people would feel once this virus spreads?” He again emphasized the need to contact mask producers to place orders immediately. Fortunately, White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro shared Dr. Bright’s sense of urgency, recognized his expertise, and was prepared to help. Mr. Bowen, who continued to raise concerns about the dire consequences of the mask shortage in the United States, connected Mr. Navarro with Dr. Bright. On February 5, 2020, Mr. Bowen sent Dr. Bright an email marked “High Importance,” with the subject line: “Prepare for a call from the White House.” He stated: “I’m pretty sure that my mask supply message will be heard by President Trump this week. I’m getting a ton of press and saying that you’re the guy who knows that I’m telling the truth. Thanks to a Trump insider reading yesterday’s Wired.com article the ball is screaming toward your court. I’m handing you the power to fix the US mask supply. Please don’t let American (sic) down.” See email from M. Bowen to R. Bright (Feb. 5, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 19. Mr. Bowen continued: “I’m also telling people that you [and the former director of BARDA] are exemplary public servants. …
on February 7, 2020, Dr. Bright was greatly surprised and relieved to receive a telephone call from Mr. Navarro’s policy assistant, Joanna Miller, who was with Mr. Navarro in the White House Situation Room. Ms. Miller asked Dr. Bright to meet with Mr. Navarro and members of his staff the following day at the White House to brief them about coronavirus response activities. Dr. Bright told Ms. Miller that he was eager to meet with Mr. Navarro but required the approval of HHS leadership to attend the meeting. He then immediately contacted Dr. Kadlec to obtain authorization to attend. Dr. Kadlec informed Dr. Bright that he (Kadlec) needed to discuss the request with Secretary Azar. As the meeting time approached, Dr. Kadlec had still not responded to Dr. Bright’s request to attend the meeting with Mr. Navarro. When Dr. Bright notified Mr. Navarro that he had not obtained clearance to attend the meeting, Mr. Navarro called both Dr. Kadlec and Brian Harrison, Secretary Azar’s Chief of Staff, directly. A few minutes later Dr. Kadlec emailed Dr. Bright, “you (sic) cleared to attend. Thank you for advising.” See email from R. Kadlec to R. Bright (Feb. 8, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 20. Even though Dr. Kadlec authorized Dr. Bright to attend the meeting, he was extremely uncomfortable that Dr. Bright had agreed to meet with Mr. Navarro. Dr. Bright later learned that Mr. Shuy had sent Ms. Miller two emails trying to dissuade Mr. Navarro from meeting with Dr. Bright. After Dr. Bright and Mr. Navarro met, Dr. Kadlec and other members of HHS leadership made disparaging remarks about Dr. Bright’s interactions with Mr. Navarro and the White House. At 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 8, 2020, Dr. Bright met with Mr. Navarro at the White House. Dr. Bright found Mr. Navarro to be deeply engaged in the issues confronting the United States in responding to the rapidly approaching pandemic. Mr. Navarro clearly shared Dr. Bright’s concerns about the potential devastation the United States would face from the coronavirus and asked Dr. Bright to identify the supply chain and medical countermeasures most critical to address at that time in order to save lives. Dr. Bright emphasized the need to secure N95 masks and to ramp up mask production. He also informed Mr. Navarro about other actions that were urgently needed to develop diagnostic tools, drugs, and ultimately a vaccine, to combat the virus. In the short run, Dr. Bright urged Mr. Navarro to take immediate action to increase the mask supply, amass Remdesivir, and fund and initiate a “Manhattan Project” for vaccine development. Unlike Secretary Azar, Dr. Kadlec and other members of HHS leadership who dismissed Dr. Bright’s assessments and urgent requests and excluded Dr. Bright from key meetings, Mr. Navarro asked good questions and was prepared to take prompt action to address this impending health crisis. Mr. Navarro clearly recognized that Dr. Bright was unable to get any traction with HHS and was, to Dr. Bright’s great relief, prepared to act. Indeed, the following day, Mr. Navarro invited Dr. Bright to return to the White House to assist him in preparing a memorandum to the White House Coronavirus Task Force urging it to direct HHS leadership to take three critical steps. In this memorandum, which Mr. Navarro sent through President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney, and President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, he identified three actions to be undertaken “IMMEDIATELY.” See “Memorandum to the Task Force,” (Feb. 9, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 21. They were: 1) immediately halt the export of N95 masks and ramp up U.S. production of masks; 2) secure all existing doses of Remdesivir and all bulk materials to make more and enter into a contract with Gilead to purchase all additional doses as they are produced; and 3) 24 immediately fund and initiate a “Manhattan Project” for vaccine development. In explaining the need for a Manhattan Project for vaccine development, Mr. Navarro stated in the memo: …
Mr. Navarro ended the memorandum stressing the importance of leaving the next task force meeting with a firm decision to immediately advance all three recommendations and warned that “[i]naction at this point risks losing our Remdesivir drug supply, our N-95 production capabilities, and any head start we may have on a vaccine for next year.” Id.17 The following day, Monday, February 10, the National Security Council Policy Coordination Committee met and directed Dr. Kadlec and HHS leadership to implement Mr. Navarro’s recommendations. This push by the White House for HHS to act more swiftly created tension between Dr. Bright and HHS political leadership because they knew that by meeting with Mr. Navarro, Dr. Bright had clearly played a key role in getting the White House Task Force to issue these directives. Dr. Kadlec in particular was uneasy about Dr. Bright’s time with Mr. Navarro, and he and other employees in Secretary Azar’s office kept tabs on their communications. That same day, Dr. Bright sent Dr. Kadlec a detailed email briefing him about the areas he had discussed with Mr. Navarro. …
While Dr. Kadlec remained uncomfortable with Dr. Bright’s access to the White House, he was left with no choice but to implement actions that mirrored those set out in Mr. Navarro’s memorandum. At an ASPR Senior Leadership meeting on February 10, 2020, Dr. Kadlec announced an urgent directive to his staff that included, as its top three priorities: (1) stopping exports of masks and preparing for an increased demand for N95s; (2) buying all existing Remdesivir; and (3) managing vaccine candidates like a “Manhattan Project.” …
Despite Dr. Bright’s best efforts, to connect mask producers to the ASPR supply chain leads so they could hear first-hand from manufacturers about the growing shortage, this urgent issue had not been effectively addressed. …
Later in the day on February 14, Dr. Bright returned to the White House at Mr. Navarro’s request to assist him in drafting several more urgent memos in preparation for the Task Force that were necessary, in Mr. Navarro’s words, to “get shit done” and “save lives.” …
At the conclusion of the February 14th meeting, Mr. Navarro drafted five separate memoranda to the White House Task Force, urging: the production of N95 masks; the creation of a Manhattan Project for the development of oral antiviral drugs; the mass production of 26 manufacture of needles and syringes; the development of handheld diagnostic and serology tests; and the development of monoclonal antibodies for potential prophylactic use to protect healthcare workers and other critical workers until a vaccine became available. Mr. Navarro sent three memoranda to the COVID-19 Task Force, through Mr. Mulvaney and Mr. O’Brien, urging immediate action to increase production of Remdesivir, increase the N95 face mask supply, and ramp up production of needles and syringes necessary to deliver a vaccine. …
With respect to the ancillary supplies issue, Mr. Navarro stated:
We face an urgent need to administer large quantities of vaccine once produced. An estimated 850M needles and syringes are required to deliver vaccine. Our current inventory of these supplies is limited and, under current capabilities, it would take up to two years to produce this amount of specialized safety needles. We may find ourselves in a situation where we have enough vaccine but no way to deliver all of it.
In late February 2020, as the number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in the United States approached 60, HHS leadership acknowledged that they were not prepared for a pandemic. …
HHS leadership’s refusal to heed Dr. Bright’s warnings about the shortage of needles and syringes to administer a potential vaccine was yet another serious point of tension between Dr. Bright and HHS leadership. …
During an HHS leadership call on March 13, 2020, Dr. Bright raised the issue with Dr. Kadlec directly, emphasizing the urgent need to halt the export of needles and syringes, place orders to buy, and ramp up production. Dr. Kadlec responded in a frustrated and dismissive manner, telling Dr. Bright that they should wait to act until they had something to inject. …
Between February and March, Dr. Bright met with Mr. Navarro six or seven more times. During each meeting, he briefed Mr. Navarro about drug supply issues and gaps in domestic drug manufacturing capacity, and his ongoing concerns about the shortages in masks, PPE for healthcare workers and first responders, needles and syringes, rapid handheld diagnostics, serology tests, vaccines, oral antiviral drugs and monoclonal antibodies for potential prophylactic use. After many of these meetings, Mr. Navarro sent memoranda to the White House Chief of Staff and Task Force members urging immediate action and implicitly criticizing HHS leadership for its failure to act. …
In addition to pushing HHS leadership to expand the mask supply, Dr. Bright also repeatedly urged HHS leadership to secure and expand the supply of COVID-19 testing materials, such as swabs to collect the virus specimen, Viral Transport Media (“VTM”) to transport the swabs to a laboratory, and chemical reagents to perform the test. On March 11, 2020, anticipating a shortage of these materials as testing ramped up around the country, Dr. Bright asked Mr. Adams for the SNS’s inventory of chemical reagent, swabs, and VTM. See email from R. Bright to S. Adams (Mar. 11, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 32. To Dr. Bright’s surprise, Mr. Adams informed him that the SNS did not stock these items, and did not offer to assist in procuring them. …
As Dr. Disbrow rightly predicted, Dr. Kadlec was resistant to even discussing the swab transport plan that he and Dr. Bright were trying to arrange with DOD. …
Determined to secure a safe, reliable air bridge to Italy before the U.S. experienced a critical shortage of testing swabs, Dr. Bright turned to Mr. Navarro, his ally in the White House. On March 14, 2020, Dr. Bright emailed White House Senior Policy Advisor Christopher Abbott, a member of Mr. Navarro’s staff, to facilitate communication with Secretary of Defense Mark Esper about approving the military flights through the DOD. See email from R. Bright to C. Abbott (Mar. 14, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 40. Mr. Navarro’s office worked quickly and secured Secretary Esper’s approval in a matter of hours. Approximately two hours later, Maj. Froude confirmed that DTRA was “working to have a flight in the air as soon as tomorrow night.” Later that evening, Dr. Bright emailed Mr. Navarro, “You did something miraculous tonight to break through the wall and bureaucratic barrier that was stalling shipment from Italy to US. Four days of bureaucracy that you broke down in 5 minutes.” See email from R. Bright to P. Navarro (Mar. 14, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 41. Dr. Bright also asked rhetorically, “Why do we buy our critical supplies such as swabs from Italy instead of US producers[?] . . . In a global crisis, global supplies quickly become global shortages. Solution: Incentivize expansion of US produced ancillary medical supplies. Buy American to sustain the US capacity.” Id. …
Dr. Bright and his deputies consistently instructed BARDA COs not to fund proposals that had not been submitted to BARDA solicitations, been reviewed by BARDA (MCM TF) subject matter experts, or had gone through the full scientific and business proposal vetting process. However, it was becoming increasingly clear to Dr. Bright and others that Dr. Kadlec and Mr. Hamel were using ASPR Next to circumvent the BARDA review process and to fund their “pet” projects, regardless of scientific merit. Dr. Bright’s efforts to safeguard the review process were doing little more than escalating tensions with Dr. Kadlec and members of his leadership team. …
As made explicit in email exchanges, Dr. Kadlec and his subordinates viewed Dr. Bright as an obstacle to their efforts to move BARDA money around. With the subject line, “Shameless,” Dr. Hassell emailed Dr. Kadlec on March 14, 2020 about DOD researchers’ request that Dr. Kadlec fund a list of projects with money from BARDA: “That was a shameless attempt to circumvent [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] and BARDA and appeal to you directly to fund [DOD projects].” See email from C. Hassell to R. Kadlec (Mar. 14, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 45. Dr. Hassell’s email explained that some of these projects were already submitted to MCM TF, and went on to state that the labs DOD is seeking to fund are “in trouble for shady dealings, illegal accounting, and lack of accountability.” …
Dr. Kadlec’s animus toward Dr. Bright escalated markedly when Congress for the first time appropriated money directly to BARDA, making it harder for him to siphon off and control BARDA’s funds. …
On March 27, 2020, Congress passed and President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act, Pub. L. 116–136. The Act appropriated $3.5 billion directly to BARDA for expenses related to the manufacturing and production of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics responsive to COVID-19. To Dr. Bright’s knowledge, this was the first time Congress appropriated money directly to BARDA and it was a game changer.22 For the first time, the ASPR had less control over BARDA’s money, and BARDA could direct its resources towards those proposals with the greatest scientific potential to combat COVID-19. Accordingly, it became much more difficult for Dr. Kadlec to redirect funds to support projects for his cronies or for political purposes. Dr. Kadlec obviously understood this fact and was not happy. After the passage of the CARES Act, Dr. Bright did not see or speak with Dr. Kadlec until three days later, on March 30, 2020. On that date, Dr. Bright entered Dr. Kadlec’s office at FEMA headquarters and attempted to update him on a new initiative being planned to rapidly enable a serology/antibody testing program. Dr. Kadlec sat in a chair working on his laptop and did not look up. Dr. Bright nevertheless provided Dr. Kadlec with an overview of the program and mentioned a potential briefing to Secretary Azar that evening or the next day. Dr. Kadlec responses were monosyllabic – “ok” “sure” “ok”. He never looked up from his computer and his demeanor was dismissive and disrespectful. …
Dr. Kadlec tried to bypass Dr. Bright to access BARDA money over Dr. Bright’s objections. On March 20, 2020, Dr. Kadlec wrote to the Executive Vice President of Research at Northwell Health, Dr. Kevin Tracey, to request an expedited review of the company’s clinical trial to develop a COVID-19 treatment. …
Three days later, Dr. Kadlec again excluded Dr. Bright when he emailed senior BARDA officials directing the award of BARDA funds to Northwell Health. … This contract was just one more example of Dr. Kadlec’s actions in bypassing all rules and procedures designed to ensure public safety and to avoid corruption in the award of billions of dollars in government funds. …
Dr. Bright resisted pressure from HHS leadership to make potentially harmful drugs widely available, including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, and provided information to a reporter about the specific danger to the public health and safety caused by the Administration’s decision to release these untested drugs for use by the general public. …
On March 23, 2020, Dr. Bright received an urgent directive from HHS General Counsel Bob Charrow, passed down from the White House, to drop everything and make the chloroquine donated by Bayer widely available to the American public. Mr. Charrow told Dr. Bright that Secretary Azar was directing BARDA to establish a Nationwide Expanded Access Investigational New Drug (“IND”) protocol for chloroquine, which would provide significantly greater access to the drug than would an EUA. …
Mr. Charrow also told Dr. Bright that he had personally drafted the informed consent form required for the Expanded Access IND protocol and wanted BARDA to set up this program within the next two days. Mr. Charrow further advised Dr. Bright that the donated drug was to be deposited in the SNS for distribution to Americans. Dr. Bright later learned that neither the foreign drug production facilities, nor the pills, had been inspected by the FDA or approved for safe use in the United States. Secretary Azar’s directive concerned Dr. Bright for several reasons: first, the best scientists and clinicians in HHS had advised that data on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine was insufficient to know if these drugs had any clinical benefit in COVID-19 patients; second, there were known safety concerns associated with these drugs, including dangerous irregular heart rhythms and even fatalities—risks that could increase if the drugs were used in combination with other drugs, including some antibiotics; and third, inconsistent and often dangerous lapses in quality control in some non-FDA inspected drug production facilities raised concerns of potential toxicity posed by contaminants and uncontrolled levels of active ingredients in imported medicines. Given the growing panic over the COVID-19 pandemic, the desperation to find a cure, and the irresponsible public promotion of an unproven medicine, Dr. Bright was extremely concerned about the prospect of chloroquine being made readily available to the public, without close patient monitoring by medical professionals. HHS scientists repeatedly agreed that the best path forward would be to evaluate chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine through randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials (“RCT”), which were already underway.
Secretary Azar’s directive to secure a Nationwide Expanded Access IND protocol for chloroquine based on scant scientific evidence and on such a short timeframe sent Dr. Bright and his colleagues scrambling. …
Later that same day, March 23, 2020, FDA Chief Counsel Stacy Amin urged various HHS and FDA officials to move forward on the Expanded Access IND protocol for chloroquine to coincide with President Trump’s forthcoming announcement of his Administration’s partnership with Oracle. See email from S. Amin to R. Charrow (Mar. 23, 2020), attached hereto as Exhibit 58 (“Can we please start moving forward on BARDA sponsoring the chloroquine IND and NIH providing the IND (sic) ? The President is announcing this tonight and I believe the WH would like it set up by tomorrow with data to flow into the Oracle platform.”) Dr. Bright remained extremely concerned, as HHS leadership seemed willing to make these drugs widely available without any clinical assurance that the drug was safe. He feared that the wide scale availability of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine could lead to serious patient harm and potentially many patient deaths. …
Despite the brokered compromise, the Administration nevertheless continued to push for expanded, unsupervised access to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, in blatant violation of the EUA issued by its own FDA and regardless of the risk to the American public. On April 4, 2020, hours after President Trump once again touted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 during a White House press conference, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir, M.D., instructed FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor, Vice Director for Logistics of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rear Adm. John Polowczyk, and Dr. Kadlec to mobilize the nation’s supply chain to “flood NY and NJ with treatment courses [of hydroxychloroquine].” …
Within HHS, there was no desire (outside of BARDA) to stop this speeding train. Dr. Bright felt powerless to protect the public from this potentially toxic chemical that HHS, at President Trump’s insistence, was touting as a safe treatment. Yet he felt an urgent and compelling need to inform the American public that this drug with insufficient scientific data to support its use for COVID-19 patients, with known safety concerns, and with no FDA oversight over its quality was now being pushed or “flooded” onto the streets of America. At this point, Dr. Bright felt that the government had failed to adequately heed these warnings and to inform Americans of the source and serious risks posed by this donated drug. He believed that Americans needed to have this critical information available to them to before taking the medication. …
In coming to this decision, Dr. Bright wrestled with what he felt was both a moral and a professional obligation to save lives and protect Americans. He knew that providing this information to a journalist would place him further at odds with HHS leadership. However as the death toll mounted exponentially each day, Dr. Bright concluded he was left with no choice, and he had a clear obligation to the American public, particularly those vulnerable as a result of illness from COVID-19, to protect it from drugs which he firmly believed constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and public safety. Dr. Bright gave the journalist HHS emails that were not privileged or classified or otherwise legally restricted from dissemination, which discussed the drug’s potential toxicity and demonstrated the political pressure to rush the drugs from Pakistan and India to American households.29 Dr. Bright hoped that by shining a light on HHS’s reckless and dangerous push to make these drug available, human lives would be saved. …
Then, in order to create a pretext for Dr. Bright’s removal as BARDA Director, Dr. Kadlec fabricated a false narrative. …
On Sunday, April 19, 2020, Dr. Bright conducted BARDA business as usual. While Dr. Collins told Dr. Bright that he was to report to him, Dr. Bright genuinely believed that Dr. Collins must have been mistaken. Even Dr. Kadlec had indicated that Dr. Collins was mistaken. Dr. Bright had no desire to work at NIH, and neither Dr. Kadlec nor anyone else had asked Dr. Bright if he wanted to transfer to NIH. …
Dr. Bright received a text message from Dr. Kadlec: “I’ve confirmed you’ve been assigned to NIH.” Dr. Bright immediately called Dr. Kadlec, but once again he did not answer. Throughout the rest of the day. Dr. Bright repeatedly called both Dr. Kadlec and, in an attempt to reach Dr. Kadlec, Ms. Bratcher-Bowman. Neither of them answered his calls. …
On April 22, 2020, Dr. Bright and his counsel released a statement objecting to his removal as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and Director of BARDA and his involuntary transfer to a more limited and less impactful position at NIH. He stated: “I believe this transfer was in response to my 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. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way.” Dr. Bright stated that he intended to file a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. …
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.
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