Top House Democrat calls for investigation of HHS vaccine chief’s reassignment

A top House Democrat is calling for an investigation into the ouster of vaccine expert Rick Bright from his role leading the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) wrote a letter Thursday asking the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to investigate Bright’s abrupt transfer to a more narrow role at the National Institutes of Health.

Pallone said he is concerned that the Trump administration has been politicizing public health agencies. 

“Removing Dr. Bright in the midst of a pandemic would raise serious concerns under any circumstances, but his allegations that political considerations influenced this decision heighten those concerns and demand full accountability,” Pallone wrote.

Pallone asked the OIG to look into who made the decision to reassign Bright, when it was made, and whether any political considerations affected the decision.

Bright on Wednesday alleged he was pushed out because he stood up for science, and limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, drugs being pushed without evidence of effectiveness by President Trump and other administration officials and allies.

“I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit,” Bright said in a statement. 

But Bright’s ouster is complicated. An HHS spokeswoman said it was Bright’s support for chloroquine that directly led to the agency’s acquisition of the drug.

Bright has hired a pair of prominent D.C. lawyers and said he will be requesting whistleblower status.

Bright said he will be asking the OIG to “investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of BARDA and has pressured me and other conscientious scientists to fund companies with political connections and efforts that lack scientific merit.”

Pallone’s request for an investigation follows one made Wednesday by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.).