A former top US health official has said the country could face its “darkest winter in modern history” due to coronavirus.
Rick Bright led the government agency trying to develop a vaccine, but was removed from his post last month.
Hours after President Donald Trump railed against him on Twitter, Mr Bright testified to a US House of Representatives panel on Thursday about readiness for the outbreak.
“What we do must be done carefully with guidance from the best scientific minds,” he said.
“Our window of opportunity is closing. If we fail to improve our response now, based on science, I fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged,” Mr Bright said during his testimony.
Mr Bright was removed last month as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.
He previously said he was removed for raising concerns about the country’s preparedness for the pandemic.
The pandemic has infected nearly 1.4 million people in the United States, gutted the economy and killed more than 82,000.
Mr Bright testified to the subcommittee on health that he would “never forget” an email he got in January from a US supplier of medical-grade face masks warning of a dire shortage.
“He said ‘we are in deep s***. The world is. We need to act,’” Mr Bright said. “And I pushed that forward to the highest level that I could of HHS and got no response.”
Mr Trump, who has been pushing for the US economy to reopen quickly, dismissed Mr Bright as a “disgruntled employee” on Twitter on Thursday morning before the hearing began.
He said he did not know Mr Bright, who “with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government!”
