DHS has decided that it has simply too much money to spend on bioterrorism issues, so it's decided to get into the rice bowls of medical research, traditionally DHHS's job.
The ongoing study is part of scientific research sponsored by DHS intended to identify the causes and potential cures of Monkeyvirus, which first broke out in the U.S. in 2003.
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The Lovelace institute will be expected to deliver a report that finalizes its evaluation data and provides a final assessment of exhalation aerosol from the infected monkeys, according to a presolicitation notice published Feb. 20 by the DHS Office of the Chief Procurement Officer.
DHS defended its decision to award a sole source contract to Lovelace by explaining that awarding a new contract to a different laboratory would, in part, result in “the morally problematic consequence of needlessly infecting more monkeys with this virus.”
I won't get into the very weak argument that DHS has presented here for a sole source contract - I'm relatively sure that no one in the medical community is fretting over the possibility of requiring animal tests to do these kind of investigations. It's kind of a routine thing, from what I understand. That is to say, it's not a moral issue as much as a "supply and demand" and necessary protocol issue.
No, I just want to ask DHS S&T Directorate why it thinks it has the need to investigate the causes of monkeypox virus if it is not a potential threat agent that terrorists might use. Where exactly on the Biological Threat Assessment does monkeypox come out? It's as if the scientists leading the S&T Directorate don't understand the bioterrorism policy. Even if it were a potential terrorist threat, this is clearly a DHHS issue. Let the medical people deal with medical research. DHS needs to find better things to do with its money, and I'm sure there are lots of other research projects out there that would have been more productive.
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