Dr. Bright: Trump Ignored Warnings And Lives Were Lost
May 14, 2020
Dr. Bright testified today that the Trump administration knew in January how serious this crisis would be and that there were severe supply shortages that would put the lives of frontline workers at risk. And yet, Trump ignored warning after warning and did nothing.
DR. BRIGHT: “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 that production to save the lives of those health care workers, and we didn’t act.”
DR. BRIGHT: “Lives were endangered and I believe lives were lost. And not only that, we were forced to procure these supplies from other countries without the right quality standards so even our doctors and nurses in the hospitals today are wearing N95-marked masks from other countries that are not providing the sufficient protection that a U.S-standard N95 mask would provide them.”
DR. BRIGHT: “We knew going into this pandemic that critical medical equipment would be in short supply. I began getting alerts from industry colleagues in mid- and late-January… In each of these alerts, and there were dozens of these alerts, I pushed those forward to our leadership… In each of those I was met with indifference.”