Coronavirus whistleblower warns 'window of opportunity' is closing in leaked testimony: '2020 will be darkest winter in modern history'

Dr Rick Bright set to testify in Congress following stunning complaint alleging dangerous dysfunction in Trump administration's response

The US will face "unprecedented illness and fatalities" from the coronavirus without a dramatically ramped-up supply of protective medical gear and a science-based response to the pandemic, according to prepared congressional testimony from a federal scientist who filed an explosive whistleblower complaint alleging dangerous, systemic dysfunction and cronyism within Donald Trump's administration.

Rick Bright, who says he was removed from his position leading a key federal health agency after sounding the alarm over a controversial anti-malaria drug pushed by the president, is expected to testify to Congress on Thursday following the release of an 89-page whistleblower report that chronicles his clashes with administration officials.

His report alleges pressure from White House officials to award lucrative medical contracts to the president's allies and details through emails and other statements how officials frequently downplayed and dismissed the dangers both the spread of Covid-19 and unproven drugs being pushed to treat it.

He says officials launched a "baseless smear campaign" against him and made "demonstrably false allegations about his performance in an attempt to justify what was clearly a retaliatory demotion" following his opposition to the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.

Dr Bright is expected to elaborate to a Congressional committee how the administration ignored shortages of critical medical supplies while he "faced hostility and marginalisation" from US Health and Human Services officials, including its director Alex Azar. The HHS has denied the allegations in the complaint.

"Our window of opportunity is closing," he writes. "If we fail to develop a national coordinated response, based in science, I fear the pandemic will get far worse and be prolonged, causing unprecedented illness and fatalities. ... ​Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history."

Dr Bright is seeking his position be reinstated with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a relatively small agency but one that has been charged with seeking a vaccine for the disease.

His stunning whistleblower complaint is among the first high-profile, first-hand revelations of the administration's inner-workings leading up to and during the pandemic.

Several reports have corroborated Dr Bright's claims that administration officials repeatedly ignored warnings, but Dr Bright's report also alleges deep ties between pharmaceutical companies and other interests with Congress and the White House, including Jared Kushner.

In a statement to reporters following the complaint's release on 5 May, Dr Bright said: "I was pressured to let politics and cronyism drive decisions over the opinions of the best scientists we have in government. And ultimately, I was removed from my position because of my continued insistence that the government invest funds allocated by Congress, hard-earned tax payer dollars, to address Covid-19, and invest them into safe and scientifically vetted solutions instead of funding projects that were promoted by cronies, or politically connected companies."

His testimony to Congress says that "it is painfully clear that we were not as prepared as we should have been."

"We missed early warning signals and we forgot important pages from our pandemic playbook," he plans to say. "The virus is out there, it's everywhere. We need to be able to find it, to isolate it and to stop it from infecting more people ... We need tests that are accurate, rapid, easy to use, low cost, and available to everyone who needs them."