Ousted Vaccine Official Testifies That ‘Lives Were Lost’ Because Of Trump Administration’s Early Missteps

The New York Times: ‘Lives Were Lost’ As Warnings Went Unheeded, Whistle-Blower Tells House
The whistle-blower who was ousted as the head of a federal medical research agency charged on Thursday that top Trump administration officials failed to heed his early warnings to stock up on masks and other supplies to combat the coronavirus, and that Americans died as a result. “Lives were endangered, and I believe lives were lost,” Dr. Rick Bright, who was removed in April as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told a House subcommittee as he warned, “The window is closing to address this pandemic.” Over nearly four hours of testimony, Dr. Bright told lawmakers that the outbreak would “get worse and be prolonged” if the United States did not swiftly develop a national testing strategy. (Stolberg, 5/14)

Reuters: U.S. Faces 'Darkest Winter' If Pandemic Planning Falters: Whistleblower
Bright testified to the subcommittee on health that he would “never forget” an e-mail he got in January from a U.S. supplier of medical-grade face masks warning of a dire shortage. “He said ‘we are in deep shit. The world is. We need to act,’” Bright said. “And I pushed that forward to the highest level that I could of HHS and got no response.” Bright testified that the U.S. still lacked a comprehensive plan for ensuring a supply of basic supplies like swabs needed to administer coronavirus tests. (Wolfe and Brice, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Ousted Vaccine Chief Warns Window Is Closing To Address Pandemic, Says Federal Government Has No Coronavirus Plan
“My concern is if we rush too quickly, and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine,” he said. “So, it’s still going to take some time.” Bright’s testimony painted a bleak picture of a federal government that failed to adequately prepare for the pandemic and is still missing opportunities to obtain materials necessary for mass distribution of a vaccine and protecting health care workers ahead of a possible resurgence of cases in the fall. (Goodwin, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Whistleblower: US Still Lacks Virus Plan, Americans At Risk
“We need still a comprehensive plan, and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is, and what role they play,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare ... we do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our health care workers ... we still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines, and we still don’t have plans in place for how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. We still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy.” At the White House, President Donald Trump said Bright looked like an “angry, disgruntled employee,” and Bright’s boss, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, said, “Everything he is complaining about was achieved.” (Alonso-Zaldivar and Lardner, 5/15)

Stat: Republicans Across D.C. Take On Rick Bright — But Can’t Land A Punch
His tenure at BARDA more broadly was also not without controversy; drug companies complained about the agency’s work under Bright, and earlier this week, Politico reported that some staffers who worked under Bright had raised concerns about his leadership style, with one formal complaint even referring to “abuse.” Those factors could call into question Bright’s claims that he was ousted solely due to his whistleblowing over the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. The hearing, for the most part, focused on Bright’s account of the Trump administration’s delays and failures in the early days of the U.S. coronavirus response. His opening statement focused on his predictions that “without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history.” He reiterated his concerns, too, about the unproven Covid-19 treatment, hydroxychloroquine. (Florko, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Workers Endangered By Delays In Getting Masks, Whistleblower Says
A Trump administration official who formerly headed an agency involved in COVID-19 vaccine development testified before Congress on Thursday that the administration's delay in requiring companies to produce N95 masks may have endangered healthcare workers. (Cohrs, 5/14)

The Hill: Bright Says His Warnings On Supply Shortages Were Ignored 
During an exchange Thursday with Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Bright said he urged officials to ramp up production. "They indicated if we notice there is a shortage, that we will simply change the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks, so that would save those masks for our healthcare workers," Bright said. (Weixel, 5/14)

PBS NewsHour: Key Moments From HHS Whistleblower Rick Bright’s Testimony On Coronavirus Response 
The U.S. missed “critical steps” to prepare for the pandemic earlier, Bright told the members of Congress. Throughout his testimony, Bright detailed multiple attempts he and other colleagues made to raise concerns with multiple officials about the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak. Instead, he said, his requests for resources in January were met with “surprise and puzzlement.” At one point, Bright refuted a claim that Trump had made in February about the virus being under control. (Norwood, 5/14)

Politico: How Rick Bright Grabbed The Spotlight And Angered The Trump Administration
Trump defenders were nowhere to be found in the House hearing room because they declined to send someone, giving Bright hours of air time and a news cycle’s worth of headlines. “I believe Americans need to be told the truth,” Bright testified in a hastily convened House subcommittee hearing — armed with a canister of Lysol wipes and seated next to an attorney. “And I believe that the best scientific advice and guidance was not being conveyed to the American public” in the early days of the pandemic. (Owermohle and Diamond, 5/14)

The Hill: Bright Says It Will Likely Take Longer Than 18 Months To Get Coronavirus Vaccine 
Former top federal vaccine official Rick Bright warned Thursday that projections of a coronavirus vaccine available in 12 to 18 months may be overly optimistic during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. The frequently cited 12- to 18-month time frame, Bright said, involves a best-case scenario, and “we’ve never seen everything go perfectly.” “My concern is if we rush too quickly and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine,” he said. "I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule and it’s going to take longer than that to do so.” (Budryk, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Ousted Vaccine Official Testifies Country Still Lacks Master Plan Amid Pandemic
In a statement, HHS questioned why Bright, who has been on medical leave with hypertension since his removal, “has not yet shown up for work” and is “using his taxpayer-funded medical leave to work with partisan attorneys.” Republicans picked up the line of questioning on Bright’s health, repeatedly asking if he was testifying as a federal employee on sick leave or as a private citizen. Bright said he had been on sick leave until this week, and under a doctor’s care for hypertension. He said he was using personal vacation time to testify. (Davis, Abutaleb, Sonmez and Wagner, 5/14)

Stat: Trump’s HHS Fires Back At Ousted Vaccine Expert Rick Bright
The attacks came less than two hours after a more direct jab from President Trump. “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!” Trump tweeted. (Florko, 5/14)

CNN: Rick Bright Plans To Start His New Job Working On Coronavirus Treatments And Vaccines Next Week 
Rick Bright will start his new job in a role inside the federal government's coronavirus response next week, his attorneys said Thursday. A Department of Health and Human Services source told CNN that Bright has been offered the job of second-in-command of the Accelerating Covid-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines partnership. The partnership has been granted about $1 billion from the HHS budget to help fight the pandemic. (Collins and Tapper, 5/14)