Whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright Warns in Prepared Testimony 2020 Could Be ‘Darkest Winter in Modern History’

Dr. Rick Bright, the former BARDA chief who filed a whistleblower complaint after being pushed out, is set to testify Thursday at a House hearing on his concerns about the U.S. coronavirus response.

In prepared testimony obtained by CNN, he warns, “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. Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”

He also plans to say that “it is painfully clear that we were not as prepared as we should have been” to respond to the pandemic.

Bright’s whistleblower complaint alleges that he was pushed out over “his objections and resistance to funding potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections and by the Administration itself.”

His prepared testimony contains a number of recommendations for improving the U.S. pandemic response, including having leaders modeling the behavior they’re telling people to follow and getting a “national testing strategy’ in place.

“We need to be able to trust the results so that we can trace contacts, isolate and quarantine appropriately while striving to develop a cure,” he says.

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