03.16.10

Crony Bioterror Defense Machine Announces Big Plan

Posted in Bioterrorism at 8:52 am by George Smith

The Univerity of Pittsburgh Medical Center has announced a new alliance for biosecurity, but without that old name.

This is after it was compelled to separate from the old ‘Alliance for Biosecurity’ last year because of the taint of cronyism which news articles attached to it, the Department of Homeland Security’s then incoming undersecretary for Science & Technology, Tara O’Toole and deceased congressman Jack Murtha.

Collectively, a reporter at the Weekly Standard dubbed this aggregation of bioterror defense enterprise and politics “the Murtha/O’Toole favor factory.”

Articles discussing it are at the Washington Times, the Standard and one on this blog are consecutively — here, here and here.

Separated from the Alliance for Biosecurity, the UPMC has continued to be be busy with other partners in order to secure more bioterror defense loot from the US government/taxpayer as a consequence of Bruce Ivins of Fort Detrick’s little stunt with anthrax.

At Armchair Generalist, Jason Sigger writes of the p.r. announcement as it was channeled through the Pittsburgh Business Journal:

Now that the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine dropped out of the “Alliance for Biosecurity,” its leadership must have been desperate to find another way to get to the cash cow of bioterrorism industry. And find one it did …

And from the PBJ:

Battelle, IBM and Merck & Co. Inc. are partnering with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in the development of a first of its kind vaccine factory, the hospital network announced.

The new partners join GE Healthcare in pursuing construction of the facility, which UPMC wants to operate in partnership with the federal government as a way to respond quickly to chemical, biological or radiological threats such as a bioterrorist attack.

The plant would be funded by the federal government and operate as a nonprofit UPMC subsidiary

In the United States post-9/11, most people instinctively realize that when one declares that your goal is to build a ‘non-profit institution’, what you are actually doing is building a very much ‘for-profit institution.’

And profit there is to be made as one can tell from an eyeball of Tara O’Toole’s ethics and financial disclosure statements, on-line last year at Pro Publica and the Washington Post.

Readers will also notice that IBM, GE and Battelle are not names any reasonably informed people normally associate with improving general health, welfare and the practice of curing the sick in this country.

They are, however, big names with a lot of clout and significant lobbying power.

“[It’s] a funny thing, how non-profits like Battelle can be so aggressively driven by profit-chasing,” writes Sigger puckishly. “‘Battelle is investing today in key initiatives that will deliver a safer, healthier, and more productive tomorrow’. So was the Umbrella Corporation.”

Tsk-tsk, Mr. Sigger.

With the impression of cozy dealing attached to the UPMC Center for Biosecurity’s work with Jack Murtha (and, well, his subsequent untimely demise), another politician of influence had been sought and found in 2009.

D nee R Senator Arlen Specter was recruited into the role of UPMC bioterror defense/vaccine manufacturing facility enabler. As can be seen by his use of the thing as a job-builder in his campaign for re-election here.

The operation, it was said, would create “70,000 jobs.” Which is overselling it by quite a bit.

The UPMC Center would allegedly revolutionize vaccine manufacture by magic use of something called GE “disposable plastic technology”. This explains GE Healthcare’s involvement, “disposable plastic technology” being apparently its proprietary contribution to a promised great leap forward in vaccine production.

“UPMC worked on its proposal for a public-private partnership for several years, according to Rep. John Murtha’s office. Murtha, D-Johnstown, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, held hearings and consulted with UPMC on the need to increase [bioterrorism] vaccine capacity in the United States,” reported the Pittsburgh Tribune last year in an article telling about a Congressional hearing called by Specter to further push it down the rails.

“At a hearing Murtha called in Washington last year, officials testified a public-private partnership, possibly with an academic institution, could be a viable option that likely would cost several billion dollars.”

Alarmed by the potential reaction that an estimate of “several billion dollars” might cause in government, since it is the taxpayer’s money, the UPMC has subsequently revised its “estimate” downward to only one billion.

“Improving vaccine capacity probably will involve several public-private facilities in case contamination or a terrorist attack disables one …” one booster of the UPMC effort told the Pittsburgh newspaper.

This was a rather strange statement, as the one bioterrorist that the US has seen in recent years did not disable any bioterror defense installations.

Bruce Ivins, the most famous bioterrorist in the world, did not attack Fort Detrick with anthrax in the mail, a public private military taxpayer-funded facility which is central to biodefense research and preparedness. Ivins was a senior researcher at Fort Detrick, one who worked on the anthrax vaccine.

Anyway, in short: This announcement is just the latest news in the effort to more efficiently transfer taxpayer treasure to the biodefense research infrastructure.

Some very informed sources consider it a done deal.

However, it’s possible Arlen Specter could lose in his bid for re-election this November. With regards to this case, the election of Republican Pat Toomey could be a good thing as it would at least cause the UPMC to go to the trouble of enlisting a new government fixer.

Permalink