Whistleblower and ousted vaccine chief Dr. Rick Bright has resigned from the National Institutes of Health, according to CNN.
In a statement, Dr. Bright's lawyers said he could "no longer sit idly by and work for an administration that ignores scientific expertise, overrules public health guidance and disrespects career scientists, resulting in the sickness and death of hundreds of thousands of Americans."
In the spring, Bright filed a whistleblower complaint charging that his early concerns about the pandemic and Trump's reckless promotion of hydroxycholoroquine as a coronavirus treatment had been ignored and he had been demoted because of them. Since then, Bright, a top vaccine researcher and former director of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, charged that he had been entirely "sidelined" at NIH.
"Although not allowed at NIH to utilize his expertise in vaccines or therapeutics, Dr. Bright developed a plan to implement a robust national testing infrastructure, which emphasized the critical need to provide screening tests for asymptomatic individuals and to provide services to underserved populations disproportionately impacted by COVID-19," Bright's attorneys, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said in a statement. "NIH leadership declined to support Dr. Bright's recommendations because of political considerations, plain and simple."
Perfect timing. Not like the country could use anyone with vaccine expertise and a commitment to sound science right now.
from Daily Kos https://ift.tt/36JE2LU
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