Yes, there really is a company called Plasma Technologies LLC in Charleston, South Carolina, but there are no manufacturing facilities. It only exists on paper inside the luxury condo of its majority owner, Eugene Zurlo, according to the Associated Press.
According to internal government records and other documents obtained by The Associated Press, “Zurlo’s company may be in line for as much as $65 million in taxpayer dollars; enough to start building an actual production plant.”
How a company with no facilities is able to snare a huge chunk of taxpayer money points to two problems ongoing in the Trump administration: One, Trump’s haphazard way of dealing with the pandemic, and two, the problem inherent in an administration that willingly doles out money to its closest political allies, regardless of their “pie-in-the-sky schemes.
The man at the center of these deals is Dr. Robert Kadlec, a senior Trump appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services. Here is a shortlist of companies who were given government contracts by Kadler, despite the objections of scientific staff:
1. Plasma Technologies LLC – to the tune of $65 million. Kadlec is “all in” on supporting Zurlo’s project and is a “key supporter.”
2. A Pepcid study to see if the common heartburn drug would be effective against COVID-19, all for $21 million.
3. ApiJect Systems America, a startup with an unapproved medicine injection technology and no manufacturing facility for the product was awarded $500 million in May.
4. Novavax Inc. of Gaithersburg, Maryland, was awarded $1.6 billion to demonstrate commercial-scale manufacturing of the company’s COVID-19 investigational vaccine. By funding this project, the government is guaranteed 100 million doses of investigational vaccine expected to result from the demonstration projects.
In emails obtained from the government, employees had many misgivings over the handing out of money for projects that had little or no scientific basis. One of them said a company would be just another “mouth to feed” that would distract from other important work on the pandemic.
An HHS spokesperson said Kadlec “does not have a role in technical review of proposals nor in negotiating contracts.” However, being a hand-picked stooge for Trump’s pleasure, Kadlec is under a lot of pressure from Trump – and has been told to not be bound by the opinions of lower-level officials.
Trump refers to real government service employees as the “deep state” and accuses them of being politically motivated in creating delays in fielding COVID-19 vaccines and remedies. This attitude has led to government investments in numerous untested companies.
Doctors in NY are conducting a clinical trial to find out of the main ingredient in #Pepcid could help #COVIDー19 patients. Full story at 10 #FOX35News pic.twitter.com/d8FKXoPUiW
— Danielle Lama FOX 35 (@DLama_FOX35) April 28, 2020
Trump backs questionable treatments
Trump, a purveyor of outrageous conspiracy theories, fake news, and questionable treatments was given Pepcid AC, along with zinc, vitamin D, melatonin, and a daily aspirin, besides getting one dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail when he was hospitalized for COVID-19, according to MedPage Today.
ApiJect Systems America is a young company created to develop an ultra-low-cost prefilled syringe that would reduce the need to reuse needles in the developing world. As of July 11, 2020, the injector is not approved by the FDA, and the company hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the unapproved devices.
Sioux Land Proud reported that according to a June 5 military document, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, tasked with buying the necessary supplies, “does not have the resources or capacity to conduct procurements necessary to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,
The thing is, Trump officials will not say why they are investing so heavily in ApiJect’s technology. The company has made only about 1,000 prototypes to date, and they have not even been tested.
