Ousted whistleblower says Trump’s health official played down coronavirus threat

The ousted director of a US agency responsible for developing drugs to fight the coronavirus pandemic filed a whistleblower’s complaint on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of retaliating when he raised concerns.

Rick Bright says in the complaint filed with a government watchdog that he warned about the virus in January and was met with hostility from Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar and other high-ranking officials in the agency.