Head of vaccine development alleges 'cronyism' after being removed from post
疫苗開發負責人在被撤職後聲稱存在“任人唯親”現象
Rick Bright claims he's being "sidelined" amid pandemic.
瑞克·布萊特聲稱他在流感大流行中被“邊緣化”了。
The head of the federal agency charged with overseeing the rapid production of a vaccine to fight the coronavirus pandemic said Wednesday he was removed from his post after trying to push back against what he called “cronyism” infecting the federal effort.
負責監督一種預防冠狀病毒的疫苗快速生產的聯邦機構負責人星期三說，他在試圖阻止他所說的“裙帶關係”感染聯邦機構後被免職。
Dr. Rick Bright said he was transferred “in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the COVID-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit.”
瑞克·布萊特博士說，他之所以被調任，是因為“我堅持要求政府將國會撥出的數十億美元資金投入到安全且經過科學審查的解決方案中，而不是投入到缺乏科學價值的藥物、疫苗和其他技術中。”
“I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science – not politics or cronyism – has to lead the way,” Bright said in a statement that came less than 24 hours after the Department of Health and Human Services circulated an internal memo, reviewed by ABC News, saying he had been promoted to a position in another agency. “Sidelining me in the middle of this pandemic and placing politics and cronyism ahead of science puts lives at risk and stunts national efforts to safely and effectively address this urgent public health crisis."
“我說因為對抗這種致命的病毒,科學,而不是政治或任人唯親——帶路,“亮在一份聲明中表示,不到24小時後,衛生和人類服務部傳閱一份內部備忘錄,對ABC新聞,說他被提升到另一個機構的位置。“讓我置身於這場大流行之中，把政治和任人唯親置於科學之上，這將置生命於危險之中，阻礙國家安全有效地應對這一緊迫的公共衛生危機的努力。”
(MORE: When coronavirus vaccine arrives, experts worry US not ready to mass produce) (更多:當冠狀病毒疫苗到來時，專家們擔心我們還沒有準備好大規模生產)
The White House declined to comment for this report, but President Trump said Wednesday that he had "never heard" of Bright.
白宮拒絕就該報道置評，但特朗普總統週三表示，他“從未聽說過”布萊特。
"The guy says he was pushed out of a job. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn't. You'd have to hear the other side. I don't know who he is," the president said at his daily press briefing.
這傢伙說他被解僱了。也許他是。也許他不是。你得聽聽另一邊。我不知道他是誰，”總統在他的每日新聞發佈會上說。
Bright had been in charge of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, known as BARDA, which recently received more than $3 billion in federal funds to help ramp up production capacity so that any discovery of a coronavirus vaccine can be quickly manufactured and distributed to hundreds of millions of Americans. His removal from the post stunned lawmakers who had been pushing for a more robust vaccine effort.
布萊特的生物醫學高級研究和發展機構,稱為BARDA,最近收到了超過30億美元的聯邦資金來幫助提高生產能力,這樣任何發現的冠狀病毒疫苗可以快速製造和分發給數以百萬計的美國人。他的被免職震驚了那些一直在推動更強有力的疫苗努力的立法者。
“We need to be listening to experts and science, not pushing them aside," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., wrote on Twitter following news reports regarding Bright's statement. "A global pandemic is not the time to shuffle personnel, or contradict and remove experts for wanting to do their job well. These reports are incredibly disturbing and I will be pushing for answers.”
“我們需要聽取專家和科學的意見，而不是把他們推到一邊，”華盛頓州民主黨參議員帕蒂·默裡(Patty Murray)說。在有關布萊特聲明的新聞報道之後，她在推特上寫道。他說:“全球大流行不是為了把工作做好而洗牌、反駁或解僱專家的時候。這些報道非常令人不安，我將努力尋求答案。”
Bright will be moving to a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to lead a new initiative “to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccine and treatment options,” said a spokesperson for Health and Human Services, which is BARDA's parent organization, prior to Bright's statement. Gary Disbrow, Bright’s current assistant secretary, will serve as the acting director of BARDA. In a follow-up statement, the HHS said at the NIH Bright would "work on development and deployment of novel point-of-care testing platforms."
在Bright發表聲明之前，BARDA的母公司衛生與公眾服務部的一名發言人表示，Bright將在美國國家衛生研究院(NIH)領導一項新舉措，“加快開發covid19疫苗和治療方案”。布萊特目前的助理秘書加里·迪斯布羅將擔任BARDA的代理董事。在一份後續聲明中，美國衛生與公眾服務部表示，在NIH Bright將“致力於開發和部署新型的現場檢測平臺”。
An internal message announcing Bright’s departure reviewed by ABC News congratulated Bright on the new position.
美國廣播公司新聞(ABC News)看到了布萊特離職的內部消息，並對他的新職位表示祝賀。
“The President and the Secretary and Congress see this as an essential effort requiring the best effort and people this Nation has,” the HHS email read. “One of our own has been tapped."
“總統，部長和國會認為這是一個必要的努力，需要最大的努力和這個國家的人民，”HHS的電子郵件中寫道。“我們的一個人被竊聽了。”
BARDA plays the crucial role of overseeing and investing in the development, manufacturing, purchasing, and deployment of vaccines during the pandemic -- what experts say is the key to emerging from the coronavirus pandemic safely. The little known agency is part of the Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
在流感大流行期間，BARDA在監督和投資疫苗的開發、生產、採購和部署方面發揮著至關重要的作用，專家說，這是安全擺脫冠狀病毒大流行的關鍵。這個鮮為人知的機構是負責準備和應對工作的助理國務卿衛生與公眾服務辦公室的一部分。
As ABC News previously reported, medical experts and sources familiar with the organization have privately raised concerns about the agency. BARDA entered the pandemic crisis with a strategic plan that had not been updated since 2016, and medical experts have privately said more funding does not mean the agency will be able to catch up in time.
正如美國廣播公司新聞(ABC News)此前報道的那樣，熟悉該組織的醫學專家和消息人士私下裡對該機構表示了擔憂。BARDA進入大流行危機的戰略計劃自2016年以來一直沒有更新，醫學專傢俬下表示，更多的資金並不意味著該機構將能夠及時跟上。
"Where has the investment been going for pandemic preparedness?" asked one infectious disease expert familiar with the agency's operations.
一位熟悉該機構運作的傳染病專家問道:“大流行防範的投資都花在哪裡了?”
When asked for the agency’s updated plan last week, Bright told ABC News in a statement that the agency’s goals are “woven into the [2018] National Biodefense Strategy, the National Health Security Strategy and Implementation Plan, and the Public Health Medical Countermeasures Enterprise multi-year budget.”
上週，當被問及該機構的最新計劃時，布萊特在一份聲明中告訴ABC新聞，該機構的目標“已被納入[2018年]國家生物防禦戰略、國家衛生安全戰略和實施計劃，以及公共衛生醫療對策企業多年預算”。
“Vaccine technology development and manufacturing initiatives begun 10 years ago and have continued towards national preparedness goals,” Bright said at the time.
布賴特當時說:“疫苗技術開發和生產活動始於10年前，並繼續朝著國家防備目標邁進。”
But this week, reports began to emerge of tensions between Bright and Dr. Robert Kadlec, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at HHS. Sources told ABC News the two men sparred on some aspects of managing BARDA throughout the coronavirus pandemic. In recent weeks, the tensions had boiled over, the sources said.
但是本週，布萊特和美國衛生與公眾服務部負責準備和應對工作的助理部長羅伯特·卡德萊克博士之間的緊張關係開始浮出水面。消息人士告訴美國廣播公司新聞網，這兩人就如何在整個冠狀病毒大流行期間管理巴爾達的某些方面進行了爭論。消息人士稱，最近幾周，緊張局勢已經升級。
Bright’s statement Tuesday also painted a bleak picture of the weeks since the coronavirus outbreak began. In it, he said he was being handed “misguided directives” pushing the drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which he said lacked scientific merit.
布萊特週二的聲明也描繪了自冠狀病毒爆發以來幾周的暗淡前景。在報告中，他說他被給予了“誤導的指令”來推銷氯喹和羥基氯喹這兩種藥物，他說這兩種藥物缺乏科學價值。
“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,” Bright said. “I insisted that these drugs be provided only to hospitalized patients with confirmed COVID-19 while under the supervision of a physician. These drugs have potentially serious risks associated with them, including increased mortality observed in some recent studies in patients with COVID-19.”
布萊特說:“雖然我準備考慮所有的選擇，並‘跳出框框’思考有效的治療方法，但我拒絕向美國公眾提供一種需要的未經證實的藥物，這是正確的。”“我堅持認為，這些藥物只能在醫生的監督下提供給已確診為COVID-19的住院患者。這些藥物有潛在的嚴重風險，包括最近一些研究中觀察到的COVID-19患者死亡率的增加。”
Those drugs had been promoted heavily by Trump during his public appearances at the White House.
這些藥品是特朗普在白宮公開露面時大力推廣的。
Earlier this month, Trump said at his daily briefing he though there were “some very strong, powerful signs” of the drug’s potential to fight coronavirus.
本月早些時候，特朗普在每日新聞發佈會上表示，他認為有“一些非常強有力的跡象”表明這種藥物有對抗冠狀病毒的潛力。
“If it does work, it would be a shame we did not do it early,” he said. “We are sending them to various labs, our military, we’re sending them to the hospitals.”
他說:“如果它真的起作用，我們沒有早點行動就太可惜了。”“我們把他們送到各個實驗室，我們的軍隊，我們把他們送到醫院。”
Late Wednesday, an HHS spokesperson said in a statement that it was Bright who requested the Food and Drug Administration give the drugs an emergency authorization (EUA). "The EUA is what made the donated product available for use in combating COVID-19," the spokesperson said.
週三晚些時候，美國衛生與公眾服務部的一名發言人在一份聲明中表示，是布萊特要求美國食品和藥物管理局(Food and Drug Administration，簡稱EUA)對這些藥物進行緊急授權的。發言人說:“EUA使捐贈的產品可用於抗擊COVID-19。”
Murray, among others in the senate, recently raised concerns about political efforts to push unproven medical solutions. In a letter sent last week, the senior Democrat on the senate’s health committee called on the FDA to “act with speed and flexibility in its response to this extraordinary public health crisis but must do so in a manner that upholds scientific integrity over political influence.”
默裡和參議院的其他一些人最近對推動未經證實的醫療解決方案的政治努力表示擔憂。在上週發出的一封信中，參議院健康委員會的資深民主黨人呼籲FDA“在應對這場非同尋常的公共健康危機時要迅速、靈活地採取行動，但必須堅持科學的完整性，而不是政治的影響。”
After Bright's statement Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., called on the HHS inspector general to investigate what he called the "shocking and disturbing allegation" that Bright was removed for questioning and "resisting" Trump's promotion of the drugs.
在布萊特的聲明之後，馬薩諸塞州民主黨參議員埃德·馬基(Ed Markey)發表了自己的看法。他說，這是“令人震驚和不安的指控”，布萊特被撤職接受質詢，並“抵制”特朗普推廣藥品。
In his statement, Bright himself asked the inspector general to "investigate the manner in which this administration has politicized the work of BARDA," among other allegations.
在他的聲明中，布賴特本人要求監察長“調查本屆政府將巴爾達的工作政治化的方式”，以及其他指控。
