Washington, April 24 (RHC)-- A top scientist at the Department of Health and Human Services says he was removed from his job after resisting President Trump’s promotion of an untested coronavirus treatment.  

Dr. Rick Bright directed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, until he was abruptly removed from his post this week and reassigned to the National Institutes of Health. 

In a scathing statement released Wednesday, Dr. Bright wrote: “Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit.  While I am prepared to look at all options and to think 'outside the box' for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public.” 

Dr. Bright has hired lawyers with the firm Katz, Marshall & Banks, which represents whistleblowers.  He added in his statement: “I will request that the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services investigate the manner in which this Administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections as well as efforts that lack scientific merit.”