“As the novel coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the U.S. public health systems, the Pentagon is withholding more than $104 million from the military’s most important chemical and biological research facilities—including a lab that conducts cutting-edge work on infectious diseases—according to a senior Pentagon official.”
“And that’s only one aspect of the military’s financial shortfall in the unfolding crisis. A document briefed to the top brass of the Army on Thursday and obtained by The Daily Beast from a second Defense Department official reveals that the service’s response to the coronavirus outbreak is short of funding by almost $1 billion.”
“Among the labs affected is the military’s premier biological defense institution: the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), located at Fort Detrick, Maryland. Also impacted is another Maryland lab, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense at the Aberdeen Proving Ground…”
“[T]he laboratories were unable to perform much of the planned work due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shutdown of USAMRIID and concerns of potential financial mismanagement at both of the laboratories,” Lord wrote on Feb. 29 in a letter shared with The Daily Beast. The Frederick News-Post last month reported an inspector-general investigation into the lab’s financing…” Read the full article here.
Source: Army Says It’s $1 Billion Short on Coronavirus Prep – By Spencer Ackerman and James LaPorta, March 13, 2020. Daily Beast.
