The lawsuit is comprehensive and detailed. Included in the 89-page brief:
He (Rick Bright) also notes that he clashed with his boss, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS Robert Kadlec, for at least two years, according to the complaint. Bright alleged that Kadlec and others pressured him to buy drugs and medical products for the nation’s stockpile of emergency medical equipment from companies that were linked politically to the administration and that he resisted such efforts.
On a call with reporters on Tuesday, Bright’s lawyers, Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, said Bright came under pressure from Kadlec to award contracts “based on political connections and cronyism,” and that he was met with indifference from top HHS officials when he tried to sound the alarm about coronavirus in January…
…Bright asserts in the complaint that he resisted pressure from HHS political leadership to make “potentially harmful drugs widely available,” including chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which Trump has repeatedly heralded as a treatment for covid-19, and urged people to take both from his Twitter account and the White House podium. The president’s associates, including Fox host Laura Ingraham and Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani have also pushed the drug in private Oval Office meetings and phone calls.
BTW, in a development likely designed to further limit sage scientific advice, the Trump Administration has moved to wind down the work of the Coronavirus Task Force. Vice President Pence says it will be because “of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country”. During the Vietnam War, Sen. George Aiken of Vermont once said that the United States ‘should just declare victory and go home’. The problem here is that while Trump may declare victory, we’re already all at home.