Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of federal office dedicated to vaccines and infectious diseases, is expected to criticize the Trump administration's lackluster and chaotic response to the coronavirus pandemic and warn of the 'darkest winter in modern history' to come if the outbreak is not brought under control during a House hearing on Thursday.
Bright is testifying at before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, chaired by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.).
"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," Bright is expected to say in his prepared testimony.
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The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:00am ET. Watch it live:
Bright, who was until April the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) at HHS, filed a whistleblower complaint last week stating that he was demoted after objecting to President Donald Trump's promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19. The president's repeated mentions of the anti-malarial drug are believed to be linked to a number of overdoses.
