By Cliff Montgomery – May 31st, 2020
We would love to believe that we have beaten the coronavirus. But the continued increases of individuals infected with COVID-19 remind us that the pandemic is still a major part of our lives.
We may try to re-open as many public places, restaurants and churches as we please: It won’t work. We can only return to our lives after we’ve created a coherent, fact-based response that will at least keep the virus from running rampant among our population, and perhaps someday eliminate it altogether.
It’s a very important point.
“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,” declared Dr. Rick Bright in a written testimony to the U.S. House Energy Subcommittee on Health.
Until recently, Dr. Bright served as director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
Dr. Bright told House members he believes he was removed from his positions by Trump Administration lackeys who wanted to silence his calls for a science-based, coordinated response to the pandemic. And though the corporate media briefly discussed the political implications of these charges, few of them listened seriously to Dr. Bright’s dire call for a proper, coherent approach to eliminating COVID-19 from our population.
hopes to change that.
Below, the Spark quotes a great part of Dr. Bright’s testimony to the House Health Subcommittee. We will publish the rest of his eye-opening statements tomorrow.
“Good morning Chairwoman, Eshoo, Ranking Member Burgess and distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today.
“I am Dr. Rick Bright, a career public servant and a scientist who has spent 25 years of my career focused on addressing pandemic outbreaks. […]
“On April 21, 2020, I was removed from my positions as the Director of BARDA and HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response by HHS leadership and involuntarily transferred to a more limited and less impactful position at the National Institutes of Health.
“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest funding allocated to BARDA 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.
“While my intention in testifying today is to be forward looking, I spoke out then and I am testifying today because science – not politics or cronyism – must lead the way to combat this deadly virus.
“The world is confronting a great public health emergency which has the potential to eclipse the devastation wrought by the 1918 influenza which globally claimed over 50 million lives. We face a highly-transmissible and deadly virus which not only claims lives but is also disrupting the very foundations of our societies. The American health-care system is being taxed to the limit, our economy is spiraling downward — leading to mass unemployment — and our population is being paralyzed by fear stemming from the lack of a coordinated response and a dearth of accurate, clear communication about the path forward.
“Americans yearn to get back to work, to open their businesses and provide for their families. I get that. We need a national coordinated strategy to look at all of these pieces and to ensure that they fit well together. To conceive and implement this strategy, our government must draw on the guidance of the best scientific minds.
“In my position as BARDA Director, I led portions of a coordinated response – development of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In January of this year, I pushed for our government to obtain virus samples from China and to secure more funding for BARDA to be able to get started quickly on the development of critical medical countermeasures.
“HHS leadership was dismissive about my dire predictions about what I assumed would be a broader outbreak and the pressing need to act, and were therefore unwilling to act with the urgency that the situation required.
“Understanding that the United States had a critical shortage of necessary supplies and PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] to deal with a pandemic, in January, February and March, 2020, I pushed HHS to ramp up US production of masks, respirators and other critical supplies, such as medicine, syringes and swabs.
“Again, my urgency was dismissed and I was cut out of key high-level meetings to combat COVID-19.
“When I was nevertheless able to convey these urgent concerns by speaking directly with a senior White House advisor and with members of Congress who better understood the urgency to act, I faced hostility and marginalization from HHS officials.
“And finally, when I resisted efforts to promote and enable broad access to an unproven drug, chloroquine, to the American people without transparent information on the potential health risks, I was removed from BARDA.
“While I am unfortunately no longer leading BARDA, I am an expert in these areas and fully understand the grave risks we are facing. I continue to believe that we must act urgently to effectively combat this deadly disease. Our window of opportunity is closing. 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.”
