Rick Bright's attorneys said in an emailed statement Friday that the Office of the Special Counsel would request a 45-day stay on Bright's removal as director of BARDA. Bright was removed over his objections to broad use of two malaria drugs in Covid-19.
Bright alleges that his removal from BARDA was the culmination of tensions that had arisen starting three years ago over contracts worth millions of dollars he says were awarded on the basis of political connections and "cronyism" rather than scientific merit.
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Rick Bright, who had been director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority since 2016, is now filing a whistleblower complaint, saying he was placed in a more limited position at the NIH pushing back against promotion of hydroxychloroquine.