WATCH: Whistleblower Rick Bright says administration’s inaction extended timeline for U.S. reopening

Vaccine expert Rick Bright told lawmakers on May 14 that a delay in resources for tools like tests and resource tracing “extended the timeline" on not only when drugs and vaccines will be available, but also when the country will be able to reopen. The delay set back the U.S. response to the pandemic, Bright said. He added that the department of Health and Human Services needed “early policy discussions to happen as soon as possible,” and because they did not happen quickly enough, it has lengthened the country’s timeline to reopen the economy. Asked whether the administration relied on politics rather than science to make decisions about the coronavirus response, Bright said there “were some attempts to bypass [the] rigorous vetting process” for drugs and vaccines, which caused him great concern.

Bright testified on Thursday before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s health subcommittee in a hearing dedicated to “protecting scientific integrity” of the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In a whistleblower complaint filed last week, Bright said he was reassigned to a different position in late April for pushing back against the Trump administration’s virus response strategy.

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