Federal government purchases two million doses of smallpox drug in preparation for bioterrorism attack

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

 (NaturalNews) First it was millions of servings of long-term storable food. Then it was billions of rounds of high-powered ammunition and thousands of tank-like armored vehicles. Now the occupying powers of the U.S. federal government are stockpiling millions of doses of smallpox medication in alleged preparation for a potential "bioterrorism attack," according to The New York Times (NYT).

Even though smallpox was supposedly eradicated back in 1980, with the only known remaining virus currently being held in government-owned laboratories, Big Brother has contracted with Siga Technologies, a small vaccine and antiviral drug company, to produce two million doses of an antiviral drug known as Arestvyr, which is administered following a viral infection.

The $463 million order, which was made by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is allegedly enough to contain a smallpox outbreak in a large American city, according to Robin Robinson, Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). However, if an outbreak were to occur nationwide, the government would need 12 million doses.

But according to Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a bio-weapons expert from Rutgers University in New Jersey, the two million-dose order is excessive because the U.S. government already has about 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine in its strategic reserve. This number is astounding, considering that back in 2001, the federal government possessed a mere 15 million doses of smallpox vaccine.

"Is it appropriate to stockpile it? Absolutely," Dr. Ebright is quoted as saying to the NYT about the purchase. "Is it appropriate to stockpile two million doses? Absolutely not. Twenty thousand seems like the right number."

Not surprisingly, Dr. Eric A. Rose, President of Siga and Vice President of the holding company owned by Siga's multi-billion dollar owner, believes the two million-dose order is appropriate. He has even come out in defense of the $200-per-dose price the government paid for the drug with taxpayer dollars.

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