'We're in deep s---': Fired scientist Rick Bright tells Congress when he realized the US wasn't prepared for coronavirus

• Dr. Rick Bright, a former government scientist who was fired last month, described to Congress on Thursday when he realized the US was unprepared to handle the coronavirus outbreak.
• Bright testified that he would "never forget" the emails he received from Mike Bowen, whose company manufactures surgical masks.
• Bowen told Bright that the US's supply of N95 masks was "decimated," Bright testified.
• "And he said, 'We're in deep s---, the world is. And we need to act.' And I pushed that forward to the highest levels I could in HHS, and got no response."
• "This was our last window of opportunity to turn on our production to save the lives of those healthcare workers, and we didn't act," Bright added.
• The HHS ousted Bright last month, and he later filed a whistleblower complaint accusing the HHS of ignoring his early warnings about the coronavirus.
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Dr. Rick Bright, a former government scientist who was fired last month, described to Congress on Thursday when he realized the US was unprepared to handle the coronavirus outbreak.

"Congressman, I'll never forget the emails I received from Mike Bowen indicating that ... our mask supply, our N95 respirator supply, was completely decimated," Bright said while testifying before a subcommittee on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

"And he said, 'We're in deep s---, the world is. And we need to act,'" Bright recalled. "And I pushed that forward to the highest levels I could in HHS, and got not response. From that moment, I knew that we were going to have a crisis for our health care workers because we were not taking action. We were already behind the ball. That was our last window of opportunity to turn on our production to save the lives of those health care workers and we didn't act."

Bright was ousted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month, and The New York Times reported that Bright claimed he was fired for resisting the White House's push to use the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for coronavirus, despite a lack of robust evidence proving its effectiveness.

He filed a whistleblower complaint this month accusing the HHS of ignoring his early warnings about the novel coronavirus outbreak, CNN reported.

Bright alleged in his whistleblower complaint that he raised early red flags about the US's preparedness for the coronavirus, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic in March. Bright also claimed he warned about a potential US outbreak as early as January but was met with "indifference which then developed into hostility" by top brass at HHS.

CNN reported that Bright's lawyers claim his ouster violates the Whistleblower Protection Act and that the scientist has "engaged in numerous instances of protected activity."

Bright filed the complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a government watchdog that oversees whistleblower complaints. He is now asking to be reinstated as the head of BARDA and a full investigation into the circumstances of his dismissal.

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