Rick Bright, PhD, the former director of an HHS agency who claimed the Trump administration retaliated against him by ousting him from his government role, has settled his whistleblower suit against HHS.
Dr. Bright, a virologist and one of the country's leading vaccine development experts, was removed from his role as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in April 2020. He had led the agency since 2016.
Dr. Bright filed a whistleblower complaint May 5 claiming he was fired from his role as BARDA director after raising concerns about hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that was being tested as a COVID-19 treatment. In the lawsuit, Dr. Bright claimed he resisted a push from Trump administration HHS officials to achieve widespread adoption of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment because the administration put "politics and cronyism ahead of science."
As part of the settlement, Dr. Bright will receive back pay and compensation for "emotional stress and reputational damage," according to The New York Times.
"The agency would like to thank Dr. Bright for his dedicated public service and for the contributions he made to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic while he served as BARDA Director. We wish him well in his new endeavors," HHS said in an Aug. 9 statement.