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A prominent United States government virologist-turned-whistleblower has accused the Trump administration of failing to tell the truth, which means Americans “were not as prepared as they might have been” to tackle the coronavirus.
Dr. Rick Bright once chaired the Advanced Biomedical Research and Development Authority, the government agency that oversees vaccination efforts. The Trump administration abruptly removed him from office last month.
During three hours of testimony on Capitol Hill, the government scientist said the United States lacks a “master plan” and gave a severe warning to members of Congress.
Dr. Rick Bright
He said, “There will probably be a revival of COVID-19 this fall and will be greatly aggravated by the challenges of seasonal influenza.
“Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.
“First of all, we must be honest with the American people. Americans deserve the truth. The truth must be based on science. We have the best scientists in the world. We will lead.”
His testimony highlighted the ongoing battle between science and politics as the United States remains under the control of coronavirus. More than 80,000 people have died, but authorities say the actual number is likely higher.
Dr. Bright says he became the target of criticism when he raised the alarm about the severity of the pandemic in January.
He says his repeated early warnings about a lack of crucial medical equipment were ignored.
“Lives were in danger and I think lives were lost,” he said.
Dr. Rick Bright spoke about protecting scientific integrity in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
He cited emails he received from a major US medical provider. USA “Which indicated that our mask supply, our N-95 respirator supply was fully decimated. And he said,” We are deep down. The world is.”‘
He added: “From that moment I knew we were going to have a crisis for health workers because we were not taking action. That was our last opportunity to activate that production to save the lives of our health workers, and we did not act.” .
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The government virologist also believes he was fired from his job because he resisted President Donald Trump’s efforts to promote unproven COVID-19 treatments such as antimalarial medicine, hydroxychloroquine.
Trump has dismissed Dr. Bright’s complaint as that of a “disgruntled employee.”
For Democrats, he was a star witness to the failures of the Trump administration. His testimony before Congress gave an idea about the president’s handling of the coronavirus, which has been widely criticized for being political and too slow.
Dr. Bright said time is running out and that the outbreak “will worsen and last” if the United States does not quickly develop a national testing strategy and design a plan to distribute a vaccine.
The US government virologist was asked how long he believed it would take to get vaccinated.
He said: “A lot of optimism revolves around a period of 12 to 18 months if everything goes perfectly. We have never seen everything go perfectly.
“My concern is that if we rush too quickly and consider eliminating critical steps, we may not have a full safety assessment of that vaccine. So it will still take some time. I think 12-18 months is a calendar. aggressive and I think it will take longer than that. “
Very different questions from members of Congress revealed how politicized the coronavirus has become in the United States.
Trump was in Pennsylvania today as he continues to push for states to reopen with the goal of getting the economy back on track.
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