Thread by @R_H_Ebright

"After..Kadlec was confirmed as..Trump’s top official for public health preparedness..he began pressing to increase..stocks of smallpox vaccine. His office..made..deal to buy..$2.8 B..from..company that once paid Kadlec as..consultant"

washingtonpost.com/investigations…

"..., a connection he did not disclose on a Senate questionnaire when he was nominated"

"Under..agreement..with Emergent BioSolutions, Kadlec’s office at..HHS is paying more than double the price per dose it had previously paid"

"Kadlec and an HHS spokeswoman declined to comment on whether his work for Emergent — at least as recently as four years before his nomination — created a conflict of interest or whether he should have disclosed it to the Senate"

"Kadlec also did not mention on filings to..Senate that he had..been part owner of..biodefense company with Fuad El-Hibri, Emergent’s founder and chairman"

"Kadlec 'may not have realized' that..involvement in..start-up firm 'could be characterized as one of
employment'" [Bull.]

"One section of..Senate questionnaire asked for details of any 'business relationship, dealing or financial transaction which you have had during..last 5 years whether for yourself, on behalf of a client, or acting as an agent, that constitutes a potential conflict of interest"

"At the time, Emergent and Bavarian Nordic—his former consulting clients—were working as medical supply contractors for the government office he was nominated to lead. His involvement in the start-up firm with El-Hibri had ended 30 months earlier."

"Kadlec answered: 'None.'"

"Kadlec scaled back a long-standing interagency process for spending billions of dollars on stockpile purchases, diminishing the role of government experts and restricting decision-making to himself and a small circle of advisers"

"By..time Kadlec..finalized..deal, records..show, it had been extended from 5 years to 10 and..number of doses per year had doubled, to 18 million. An Emergent executive said..price per dose is..$9.44 in..first year, more than twice what..government paid..previous supplier""

"Kadlec’s office..also awarded Emergent..contract worth..$535 M to supply..product that treats side effects caused by smallpox vaccinations..Last year, his office exercised a $260 M option to extend an Obama-era contract with Emergent for an anthrax vaccine."

"And Emergent has a deal worth up to $67.1 million to supply Kadlec’s office with a drug to treat cyanide exposure."

"In all, records show, ASPR has paid Emergent more than $733 million since Kadlec took over, making the company his office’s top contractor."

"Kadlec committed additional spending to..biodefense countermeasures as smallpox and anthrax vaccines while cutting planned spending on emerging infectious diseases, despite warnings from scientists that..natural contagion could..be devastating"

"Citing limited resources, his office halted an Obama-era initiative to spend $35 million to build a machine that could produce 1.5 million N95 masks per day"

Kadlec is epitome of crony capitalism under Trump

At all times, Kadlec has represented interests of biodefense contractors, particularly Emergent, and of biodefense-contractor lobbying organization, Alliance for Biosecurity

At no time, has Kadlec represented interests of public

(Also worth noting that Robert Kadlec is the person who fired BARDA head Rick Bright two weeks ago, removing the last head of a Trump-Administration health agency who wasn't a bootlicking toady or an empty suit.)