$20 Million On An Unproven Malaria Drug, $650 Million On A Coronavirus Cure: How Trump's Government

[riversedge]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/15/20-million-on-an-unproven-malaria-drug-650-million-on-a-coronavirus-cure-how-trumps-government-has-spent-over-3-billion-fighting-covid-19/#7bc7c08873ca

|Apr 15, 2020,12:02pm EDT

$20 Million On An Unproven Malaria Drug, $650 Million On A Coronavirus Cure: How Trump’s Government Has Spent Over $3 Billion Fighting COVID-19

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2020/04/15/20-million-on-an-unproven-malaria-drug-650-million-on-a-coronavirus-cure-how-trumps-government-has-spent-over-3-billion-fighting-covid-19/#7342c00373ca


It’s been just over a month since President Trump announced a national emergency in response to the spread of COVID-19, the virus now believed to have claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people across America.

The president pledged to release billions in funding to fight the coronavirus. Now, information from the Federal Procurement Data System shows well over $3.02 billion has been spent to date, almost half of which has come out of the Health and Human Services (HHS) department.

The FPDS team notes the figure is just “a portion” of what’s actually been spent, as many federal agencies won’t have reported all contract data, largely thanks to the limitations and burdens imposed by the coronavirus. But over 2,800 separate orders have been recorded as being spent on COVID-19 aid, with some huge deals being signed by some of the world’s biggest companies.
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Much of the spend has been predictable: massive contracts for ventilators, personal protection equipment and hospital building. But there are some outgoings that might prove more controversial, from $25 million on big data cruncher Palantir to a $20 million trial testing the efficacy of antimalarial hydroxychloroquine, a drug promoted by Trump in treating COVID-19 but questioned by one of his lead health advisors, amongst many others.

Forbes dove into the data to see where Trump’s money is going to deal with the biggest health crisis he or any other president has faced.


COVID-19 cures and treatments: $1 billion and counting[/b

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[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Follow the money. Lots of no-bid contracts. . . . nt