Before pandemic, Trump's stockpile chief put focus on biodefense. An old client benefited.
Source: Washington Post
After Robert Kadlec was confirmed as President Trumps top official for public health preparedness in 2017, he began pressing to increase government stocks of a smallpox vaccine. His office ultimately made a deal to buy up to $2.8 billion of the vaccine from a company that once paid Kadlec as a consultant, a connection he did not disclose on a Senate questionnaire when he was nominated.
Under the agreement struck last year with Emergent BioSolutions, Kadlecs office at the Department of Health and Human Services is paying more than double the price per dose it had previously paid for the drug. Because Emergent is the only licensed maker of the vaccine, Kadlecs office arrived at the price through negotiations with the company rather than through bidding.
The 10-year contract is part of an effort by Kadlec to bolster the nations stockpile of defenses against biological and chemical weapons, a focus he made a priority over preparing for a natural pandemic, an examination by The Washington Post found. Kadlec, a decorated veteran and biodefense expert, has argued for more than two decades in government and the private sector that the nation should devote more of its resources to preparing for bioweapon attacks.
Quite frankly, Mother Nature is not a thinking enemy intent on inflicting grievous harm to our country, killing our citizens, undermining our government or destroying our way of life, he told Congress in 2011. Mother Nature doesnt develop highly virulent organisms that are resistant to our current stockpiles of antibiotics.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/before-pandemic-trumps-stockpile-chief-put-focus-on-biodefense-an-old-client-benefited/2020/05/04/d3c2b010-84dd-11ea-878a-86477a724bdb_story.html
Frustratedlady
(16,254 posts)How many instances like this are going on where Trump appointees give gifts to their friends? It's bad enough Trump does it.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,994 posts)lark
(23,091 posts)Ordinary corruption isn't wanted, he wants killers of the mass variety, those whose only care is how many can they hurt while they get more money and steal it from "the others".
japple
(9,821 posts)stockpiles of antibiotics. Well, it seems like it was something that was highly resistant to our current stockpiles of ANY known treatment or vaccination.
aggiesal
(8,911 posts)like he had 100 lifeboats to choose from and he missed them all!
They're all IDIOTS!
not fooled
(5,801 posts)Every 1st year biology student knows antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses.
LeftInTX
(25,258 posts)The US has not invested in developing antibiotics that treat antibiotic resistant infections. This has been going for years. I saw this on a Front Line episode from 2013. If I was a betting person, I would have put my money on antibiotic resistance infections. But my bet would have been wrong.
Response to Zorro (Original post)
japple This message was self-deleted by its author.
Firestorm49
(4,032 posts)Blatant corruption, screw the population, back door pay backs (?), money, greed and power. Im so sick of this recurring nightmare going on every single day from the time the Bloviat in Chief stumbled into the Oval Office.
Why this entire country isnt screaming bloody murder in the streets is beyond me.
not_the_one
(2,227 posts)Everyone of us cronies that has benefited from "his" (read "the taxpayers" largesse, will financially back him, come the election.
riversedge
(70,187 posts)sdfernando
(4,930 posts)Mother Nature doesnt develop highly virulent organisms that are resistant to our current stockpiles of antibiotics.
On of the most ignorant and short-sighted statements I've ever seen.