The Smell of Corruption

            As I grow older I find that some of my senses aren't as sharp as they used to be. My eyes need contacts to see clearly, my right ear is almost completely deaf, my taste buds don't appreciate fine food and wine like they used to, and so on. But one of my senses is as sharp as ever, and that is my sense of smell. Let me explain.

            A report in the Los Angeles Times on November 13 has set my nostrils flaring in anger at the smell of corruption emanating from Washington. It seems that investigative reporters have uncovered a $433 million government contract with Siga Technologies, a pharmaceutical company from New York, to produce 1.7 million doses of an experimental smallpox drug, even if it's not certain the drug is needed or will even work.

            Now, smallpox has been eradicated throughout the world; the last documented infection was in 1978. But just in case, this country stores enough smallpox vaccine to inoculate everyone in the country at the cost of $3 per. So why do we need a new vaccine? We're told it's just in case the disease somehow reappears and someone doesn't get vaccinated in time. Of course, we don't know if this new vaccine will work, since it's impossible to test it. The story gets worse.

            The report says that the new vaccine will cost $255 per dose. Outrageous, you say? That's nothing. Siga projects that it will make 180% profit on the drug. Now that's obscenely outrageous. How could our government possibly approve such a contract?

            Well, get this. The contract was awarded to Siga as a sole source, otherwise known as a no-bid contract. If this vaccine was necessary in the first place, competition to make it should have been open to all drug manufacturers. But it wasn't. The administration cleared the way for Siga to be the sole source and, thereby, to set any price it wanted.

            And consider this, also. Siga's controlling share is held by a man named Robert O. Perelman. He is one of the richest men in the world. If he believed this drug was really needed, he could have developed it on his own without a government subsidy. So how was he able to swing such a sweet deal?

            Well, it just so happens that Robert O. Perelman is a big Obama supporter and a major contributor to the Democrat Party. Gee. I wonder if there's a connection there. Does this remind anyone of the smell of scandal in the Solyndra affair?

            I don't know about anyone else. But for me the stench is overpowering.