(Photo: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Handout via REUTERS/Third party image)
The United States faces its "darkest winter" in modern times unless health authorities and government leaders will undertake serious efforts to keep the novel coronavirus from exploding into a second -- or even third -- wave, a government whistleblower, who claimed he was booted from his job for warning US President Donald Trump's administration to brace for the horror, disclosed.
Dr. Rick Bright, the former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, was in charge of the federal agency that oversees the development of drugs and therapeutic remedies for the dreaded disease until he was ousted from a high-level scientific position last month.
During a US House of Representatives committee hearing where Bright warned about the very gloomy scenrario, he testified that the US does not have a plan to produce a Covid-19 drug when this becomes available for massive use and distribution.
"We do not have a vaccine (plan) yet, and it is a very important concern," Bright said before members of the Congress panel. Asked if lawmakers should be worried, Bright said "absolutely."
In prepared remarks submitted to Congress, Bright warns that "without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history." In a whistleblower complaint, Bright said he was forced out of his job at the Department of Health and Human Services after he resisted the Trump administration's promotion of unapproved treatments for COVID-19.
In Bright's whistleblower complaint, he accused the Trump administration of improperly pushing unverified therapies like the hydroxychloroquine and failing to understand clearly the seriousness of the virus until it was too late.
According to Bright, what the US must be doing should be carefully in line "with expert advice and guidance from the best scientific minds." He added that the country's window of opportunity is fast closing and that If authorities fail to strengthen its crisis response now, "I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged."
Basd on latest reports, the coronavirus pandemic has sickened almost 1.4 million people in the US, ravaged its economy and claimed the lives of over 82,000. Elsewhere around the world, the health crisis has likewise worsened, especially on cities that have reopened their businesses too soon following a decline in the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities.
Some details of Bright's whistleblower-complaint with regards the initial response and handling of the government of the pandemic are expected to be supported by testimony from a senior executive of a company that makes respirator masks.
A government monitoring body has found "reasonable grounds" that Bright was ousted from his position as chief of the BARDA for making public the Trump administration's poor handling of the crisis at the US Health Department and Human Services.
The pandemic, Bright said, will result in "unprecedented sickness and death" if the US government fails to come up with a coordinated action plan based on science, his complaint read.
Bright said the US needs an effective set of policies to create a supply chain for making tens of millions of doses of a vaccine, and then allotting and distributing the drug fairly. He added that experience so far with a coronavirus vaccine that has been discovered to help COVID-19 patients has not given him much confidence with regards mass distribution. Hospital pharmacies have reported issues availing of limited supplies.
Meanwhile, Trump, who has been anxious about reopening the US economy, junked Bright's testimony and described him as a "disgruntled and unhappy employee" on Twitter Thursday morning before the start of the Congress inquiry.
