Hydroxychloroquine 2020: BARDA?

Short historical piece from a pharma industry newsletter

Merry 4th day of Christmas, and many interesting currents on Substack lately, including a lively discussion on the role of immunoglobulin IgG4. I have much reading to do, before being able to address this material.

In the meantime, it has emerged that American Covid pandemic response was led by an organization with Health and Human Services (HHS) called BARDA - Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. It appears that the CDC and FDA were “junior” to BARDA , particularly on matters of Covid therapeutics and diagnostics. “Operation Warp Speed” appears to have originated (at least in part) with this organization, which worked on “therapeutic platforms,” I.e. technologies that could be rapidly repurposed to address different pathogens.

The emphasis of BARDA on rapid response to emergent diseases is emphasized on several publications on their website, medicalcountermeasures.gov. The quasi-military nature of this arm of HHS is suggested by the use of the term “countermeasures” in their web name - a term foreign to clinical medicine but familiar to warfare.

It is likely that much will be learned about the leadership role of this organization in 2023, which will presumably clarify otherwise inexplicable US government attitudes toward VAERS data, and early treatment drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.

Meanwhile, here is a piece from 2020, regarding infighting at BARDA that took place around the use of hydroxychloroquine:

https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/coronavirus-barda-director-congress-hydroxychloroquine/577990/