By Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday an ousted health official who filed a whistleblower’s complaint accusing the administration of retaliating when he voiced concerns about the coronavirus in January seemed to be a disgruntled person who wants to help Democrats.
The Republican president told reporters at the White House that he did not hear good things about Rick Bright, who was ousted last month from his job as the director of a U.S. agency responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
Bright had been director of agency, known as BARDA, since 2016.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which oversees BARDA, said Bright had been moved to a new role within the National Institutes of Health.
Bright said in a whistleblower complaint filed with a government watchdog on Tuesday that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from HHS Secretary of Health Alex Azar and other high-ranking officials in the agency.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Jan Wolfe and Mohammad Zargham; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
