{"id":38567,"date":"2021-08-09T13:29:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T20:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=38567"},"modified":"2021-08-09T17:29:59","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T00:29:59","slug":"whistleblower-scientist-settles-complaint-over-trump-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=38567","title":{"rendered":"Whistleblower scientist settles complaint over Trump COVID-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A former leading government scientist who says he was ousted from his job by the Trump administration has settled his whistleblower complaint against the federal government.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/rgvwyhjflccpshscpkgllpwwljpbcjcqqvlfhtbcrgkrnj_tbmlvvhzhklczjvbmcwj.html?a=&amp;b=41345\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/rgvwyhjflccpshscpkgllpwwljpbcjcqqvlfhtbcrgkrnj_tbmlvvhzhklczjvbmcwj.html?a%3D%26b%3D41345&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628634053085000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHl4YsFtfeUuNI1HrcAVeclTGsOcA\">Rick Bright<\/a>\u00a0led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority until he was removed in April 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Bright\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/tvvjsdwfpllktdtlkbvppkjjpwkrlwlggcpfdmrlzvbzhl_tbmlvvhzhklczjvbmcwj.html?a=&amp;b=41345\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/tvvjsdwfpllktdtlkbvppkjjpwkrlwlggcpfdmrlzvbzhl_tbmlvvhzhklczjvbmcwj.html?a%3D%26b%3D41345&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1628634053085000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHUwupthQzm5jo2vRKyjAjEGW5qPg\">filed a whistleblower complaint<\/a>\u00a0alleging the Trump administration prioritized politics above science, and claimed his efforts to push back on the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus contributed to his removal.<\/p>\n<p>According to the complaint, Bright pressed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the threat of the virus and the urgent need to act, but &#8220;encountered indifference which then developed into hostility from HHS leadership.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>While Bright was pressing HHS officials to provide necessary resources to begin vaccine, drug and diagnostic development to combat COVID-19, he alleged former HHS Secretary Alex Azar was instead focused on downplaying the threat of the virus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former leading government scientist who&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38567"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38568,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38567\/revisions\/38568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}