WASHINGTON - A top US health official who was helping lead efforts to find a coronavirus vaccine said he was removed from his post because he insisted on limiting the use of a drug President Donald Trump has pushed as a Covid-19 treatment despite little clinical evidence it works.
"While I am prepared to look at all options and to think 'outside the box' for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public," Bright said."I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalised patients with confirmed Covid-19 while under the supervision of a physician.
But according to a Politico report citing unnamed sources, Bright in internal messages supported a recent HHS acquisition of doses of those drugs, and his management, including on BARDA's strategy, had been criticised by Trump administration leaders. Politico said that Bright did not return requests for comment.
"Everyone wants to grab onto any idea, any anecdotal data or any observational data, but what we are really trying to do is conduct randomised controlled trials to get high quality data," Bright said.