Sen. McCaskill Requests Probe Into $433M Smallpox Drug Contract

[djones520]

A Democratic senator called this week for an investigation into a $433 million government contract for a smallpox drug amid questions over the necessity of the drug and the way the contract was approved.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who chairs a subcommittee on the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, said there are "serious questions" about the contract, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The senator reportedly requested an investigation in a letter to Daniel Levinson, the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The request comes after the Times reported earlier this month that U.S. officials took unusual steps to award the contract to Siga Technologies. Democratic donor Ronald Perelman has the controlling share of the company.

The article cited emails showing the Obama administration replaced the lead negotiator on the project following complaints from Siga, which was apparently concerned about the government's objections to how much money Siga would make off the deal.



http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/26/sen-mccaskill-requests-probe-into-433m-smallpox-drug-contract/?test=latestnews

It's insteresting to see a Dem was the one to raise the BS flag on this one. Maybe a D senator from a red state decided to start playing it straight with the election coming up?

Considering the disease was eradicated, it does raise the question as to why this research was needed. We still have the vaccine that works in the unbelievably unlikely chance the disease resurfaces.

[SaintLouieWoman]

Interesting since she was such an ardent Obama supporter. I don't trust that woman. There has to be something in it for her----like saving her own rear with the conservative voters in Missouri.

[djones520]

Interesting since she was such an ardent Obama supporter. I don't trust that woman. There has to be something in it for her----like saving her own rear with the conservative voters in Missouri.

The cynic in me agrees with that idea.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Interesting since she was such an ardent Obama supporter. I don't trust that woman. There has to be something in it for her----like saving her own rear with the conservative voters in Missouri.

You are so right; my own take on it is that she must have reason to believe none of it will stick to Obama, because she is so over-committed to his useless ass that I find it hard to believe she would dump him now to save herself.

It's not completely impossible, of course, she was after all swept into office in 2006 thanks largely to a ballot initiative that brought out a lot of Democrat lowlifes (Raising the MO minimum wage pretty heavily) in Bush's mid-term election, and it can't have entirely escaped her calculations that since then Obama failed to carry Missouri in 2008 by a whisker, despite the lack of enthusiasm for McCain and the full-court press by the MSM for Barry.

[noonwitch]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/26/sen-mccaskill-requests-probe-into-433m-smallpox-drug-contract/?test=latestnews

It's insteresting to see a Dem was the one to raise the BS flag on this one. Maybe a D senator from a red state decided to start playing it straight with the election coming up?

Considering the disease was eradicated, it does raise the question as to why this research was needed. We still have the vaccine that works in the unbelievably unlikely chance the disease resurfaces.


The only way I see smallpox resurfacing in the general population is in some type of terrorist attack. Samples of the virus exist in labs, and if some lunatic got hold of some, like in "12 Monkeys", he could infect lots of young people. The rest of us got our vaccines as children.

[djones520]

The only way I see smallpox resurfacing in the general population is in some type of terrorist attack. Samples of the virus exist in labs, and if some lunatic got hold of some, like in "12 Monkeys", he could infect lots of young people. The rest of us got our vaccines as children.

Small pox has to be spread through contact though. It's a lot harder to cause a widespread issu with something like that then an air based agent like Anthrax. The symptoms from it are easily recognizable and our health officials could respond to it before it spread.

Given the difficulty in obtaining one of the few remaining samples, getting it somewhere that you could it, then actually trying to spread it, it's a highly impractical weapon. Just putting that type of money into bombs would probably be much more cost effective.