Washington (AFP)
Sacked by Donald Trump, ex-director of a government agency responsible for developing treatments for the new coronavirus will warn Congress on Thursday that next winter could be the "darkest" in US history if nothing is done to better coordinate the response to the pandemic.
"Our window of action is closing. If we fail to deliver a coordinated, science-based national response, I fear that the pandemic will worsen and continue, causing unprecedented numbers of illnesses and deaths. "said Rick Bright, according to a copy of his testimony released Wednesday.
"Without clear planning and the monitoring of the steps that I and other experts have set out, 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history," he said before a committee of the House of Representatives, during a '' A hearing starting at 10 a.m. (2 p.m. GMT).
According to Rick Bright, "there is no doubt that there will be an increase in Covid-19 this fall", which, in addition to the seasonal flu, should put the American hospital system "under unprecedented pressure".
"We were not as prepared as we should have been. We missed early warning signals," said the immunologist, who has spent 25 years working on pandemics.
Rick Bright was head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until the end of April, a partner of two companies developing vaccines against Covid-19. He was then transferred "against his will" to the National Institutes of Health, to a "more limited" position, he testified.
He claims to have been sacked for political reasons, particularly because of his opposition to the widespread use of chloroquine, a drug at the time touted by Donald Trump.
Rick Bright said he wanted to invest public funds "in safe and scientifically verified solutions, not in treatments, vaccines and other technologies that have no scientific merit."
© 2020 AFP