GREG NASH/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesBy LIBBY CATHEY, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of congressional testimony Thursday morning from Rick Bright, the ousted vaccine development chief who claims he was retaliated against for warning the government was slow in responding to the novel coronavirus, President Donald Trump has tweeted that, though he doesn’t know the “so-called Whistleblower,” he sounds like a “disgruntled employee” and “should no longer be working for our government.”
I don’t know the so-called Whistleblower Rick Bright, never met him or even heard of him, but to me he is a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2020
Bright, who was moved from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to the National Institutes of Health, is expected to warn House lawmakers the U.S. will see the “darkest winter in modern history” without a ramped up response to the coronavirus.
Trump’s attack on Bright comes one day after the president publicly rejected the advice of the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on how cautious governors and local officials need to be when reopening schools amid the pandemic.
Asked about Fauci’s concerns with reopening the country too soon, Trump said Fauci “wants to play all sides of the equation” and on schools specifically, said he didn’t think Fauci’s response to the topic on Tuesday was “an acceptable answer.”
“They should open the schools, absolutely, I think they should. And it’s had very little impact on young people,” Trump said, although new reports have revealed more cases of children stricken with a potentially fatal syndrome possibly linked to COVID-19.
Fauci, in congressional testimony, did not advise that schools stay closed but said a region’s ability to handle an outbreak should play a part in the decision to reopen them. He also said, “We’ve got to be careful, if we are not cavalier, in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects.”
Trump on Thursday is also traveling to a medical distribution facility in the Allentown, Pennsylvania, area on Thursday — his second major trip outside Washington in over two months — as he ramps up his push to reopen the country, with an eye on battleground states that could prove key to his re-election.
The president tweeted an attack at Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this week, claiming he was moving “slowly” to reopen for “political purposes,” even as Trump’s own coronavirus task force warns doing so too rapidly could accelerate the spread of the virus.
He repeated his theory on Wednesday in a White House meeting that “some governors and some — perhaps partisans — maybe for election reasons don’t want to have their states open,” as he applauds other states for reopening amid the pandemic.
Good numbers coming out of States that are opening. America is getting its life back! Vaccine work is looking VERY promising, before end of year. Likewise, other solutions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 14, 2020
Here are Thursday’s most significant developments in Washington:
Bright says Azar ignored his concerns on shortage of swabs needed to administer coronavirus tests
Outlining issues with the strategic national stockpile, Bright testified that when he asked officials in the Trump administration for a national inventory of personal protective equipment and supplies to combat the pandemic, he was told there were none.
“It was kind of a surprise to me that the urgent ramped up of the testing did not include full consideration of all the critical supplies needed to support that ramp up of testing, including those materials you mentioned — swabs, viral transport media buffers, etc.,” Bright said. “And I was quite alarmed to learn from sitting behind the CDC Director Redfield that we were going to experience this shortage.”
Bright said he raised the issue to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, but his concerns were dismissed.
“It clearly was not a topic that he wanted to discuss on that day and actually we were rebuffed by him saying that he did not really want to talk about swabs right now,” Bright said.
It wasn’t until Bright contacted White House trade adviser Peter Navarro that he was able to get the help of the Department of Defense to produce swabs, he claimed.
“I do believe that we should have been doing everything possible placing orders early ramping up supply ramping up production of those critical medical equipment as quickly as possible whether or not that’s through the Defense Production Act or other mechanisms. It should have been a high priority,” Bright said in later questioning.
Bright says sharing his concern about hydroxychloroquine was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’
Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., directly asked Bright if he believed his removal was in part because of his “push back” against the drug hydroxychloroquine, touted by President Trump and his Republican allies, even during Thursday’s testimony.
“I believe part of the removal process for me was as initiated because of a push back that I gave when they asked me to put in place an expanded access protocol that would make chloroquine more freely available to Americans that were not under the close supervision of a physician, and may not even be confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus,” Bright said.
“When I spoke outside of our government and shared my concerns for the American public that I believed was the straw that broke the camel’s back and escalated my removal.”
He again expressed his concern that there isn’t sufficient data supporting the drug.
Bright warns of ‘darkest winter in modern history,’ says ‘let us speak without fear of retribution’
After listing his qualifications as a career public servant with 25 years focused on pandemic outbreaks, Rick Bright issued his first verbal warning to House lawmakers in his opening remarks, saying that without more planning, the pandemic will “get worse and be prolonged.”
“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,” Bright said. “Without better planning 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.”
“We need a national testing strategy,” Bright said. “The virus is here, everywhere.”
After nodding to Dr. Anthony Fauci’s Tuesday testimony, Bright took a moment to call for truth rooted and science and emphasis the importance for scientists to speak “without fear of retribution.”
“We need to be truthful with the American people. Americans deserve the truth. The truth must be based on science. We have the world’s greatest scientists. Let us lead. Let us speak without fear of retribution. We must listen. Each of us can and must do our part now,” Bright said.
He also gave a preview of his testimony to come: his view that the federal government could have better handled the pandemic and claim that scientists were ignored.
“Some scientists raised early warning signals that were overlooked and pages from our pandemic playbook were ignored by some in leadership,” he added. “But right now we need to focus on getting things right going forward…You can count on me to do my part.”
Subcommittee chair Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., asked Bright what is needed going forward to “get it right.”
“The window is closing to address this pandemic because we still do not have a standardized, centralized, coordinated plan,” Bright said, though adding that a plan could still be developed.
When Eshoo asked Bright the first direct question about the Trump administration’s response to the virus, Bright said, “I believe we could have done better.”
“I believe there are critical steps we did not take in time,” Bright said. “I began pushing urgently in January, along with some industry colleagues as well. And those urges, those alarms, were not responded to with action.”
As he laid out in the whistleblower complaint, Bright said that portions of the pandemic playbook were ignored by some in the administration’s leadership.
On the strategic national stockpile, Bright said that the government has “known for quite some time that our stockpile was insufficient” and told the committee that he raised alarms and “those alarms were not responded to with action.”
–ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Sarah Kolinovsky
Bright testifies before House lawmakers, Democrat calls White House response ‘inept, ineffective and extremely late’
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., chair of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, began Thursday’s hearing by criticizing the Trump White House’s response to the pandemic and calling Bright’s complaint filed last week “one of the most specific and troubling whistleblower complaints I have ever seen.”
“We are the greatest country on earth and yet we have the most cases and the most deaths from COVID-19 of any nation in the world,” Eshoo said, wearing a blue face mask underneath her chin. “We must work together for the people of our country, who need us, so, so much, regardless of inconvenient truths.”
She ended her opening marks by asking for a moment of silence for the more than 80,000 Americans who have lost their lives to the novel virus.
“Why is this the first official hearing we’re having on this topic? To say this is a disappointment would be an understatement,” said Burgess.
Bright was unphased by the political infighting, sticking to his grave warning.
“Americans yearn to get back to work, to open their businesses and provide for their families. I get that. However, what we do must be done carefully and with guidance from the best scientific minds. Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged,” Bright said. “There will likely be a resurgence of COVID-19 this fall, and it will be greatly compounded by the challenges of seasonal influenza.”
Ranking Member Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, criticized Eshoo for holding a hearing with Bright while his whistleblower complaint is under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel, arguing that it’s inappropriate, while Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Md., said it’s unacceptable the subcommittee hasn’t held other important COVID-19 hearings for two months.
Rick Bright, the ousted director of the federal agency tasked with developing a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, didn’t seem phased by the parliamentary squabble.
The former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) filed a whistleblower complaint last week alleging he was removed from his post in retaliation for opposing the broad use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug frequently touted by President Trump, though it’s still unproven effective as a coronavirus treatment.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Sarah Kolinovsky
Department of Labor: Nearly 3 million jobless claims filed last week
More than 35 million people have filed for unemployment in the last two months, creating a 14.7% unemployment rate, the highest since the Great Depression.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, when asked about Wednesday about concern from Dr. Anthony Fauci that some areas of the country are reopening prematurely, said, “there’s also a risk if we wait too long.”
“Dr. Fauci and I have spent a lot of time together on the task force. We have pretty much daily calls,” Mnuchin told Fox News. ” The president is absolutely concerned about the health of the American public, but there’s also a risk if we wait too long. There is a risk of destroying the U.S. economy and the health impact that that creates.”
Last week alone, nearly 3 million people filed for unemployment insurance, according to a Department of Labor report released Thursday morning.
The unprecedented influx in jobless claims has created a number of issues for those in need of benefits as businesses across the country were forced to close their doors and Americans report ongoing struggles in the unemployment application process.
ABC News’ Catherine Thorbecke
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