Ousted US government scientist files whistleblower complaint over.

NewsTimes on May 6 2020 Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, filed the complaint on Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, a government agency responsible for whistleblower complaints. Bright alleges in the complaint that political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services had tried to promote hydroxychloroquine “as a panacea”. The officials also “demanded that New York and New Jersey be ‘flooded’ with these drugs, which were imported from factories in Pakistan and India that had not been inspected by the FDA”, the complaint says. But Bright opposed broad use of the drug. He felt an urgent need to tell the public that there wasn’t enough scientific evidence to support using the drugs for Covid-19 patients, the complaint states. In a statement issued late last month, Bright said: “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.”Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration warned doctors against prescribing the drug except in hospitals and research studies. In an alert, regulators flagged reports of sometimes fatal heart-related side-effects among coronavirus patients taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine. The decades-old drugs, also prescribed for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, can cause a number of side-effects, including heart rhythm problems, severely low blood pressure and muscle or nerve damage. Associated Press contributed to this report