Robert Peter Kadlec is an American physician and career officer in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
who served as
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services (Preparedness and Response) from August 2017 until January 2021.
Early life
Kadlec graduated with a B.S. from the
United States Air Force Academy
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) is a United States service academy in El Paso County, Colorado, immediately north of Colorado Springs. It educates cadets for service in the officer corps of the United States Air Force and Uni ...
in 1979, an M.D. from the
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) is a health science university of the U.S. federal government. The primary mission of the school is to prepare graduates for service to the U.S. at home and abroad in the medical corps as ...
in 1983, and an M.A. from
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
in 1989.
Career
Kadlec spent 26 years as a career officer and physician in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
. In the White House Homeland Security Council, Kadlec was Director for Biodefense and Special Assistant to President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
for Biodefense Policy from 2007 to 2009.
[
Kadlec was Deputy Staff Director for the ]United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of ...
when he was nominated by President Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
to become Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) is an operating agency of the U.S. Public Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services that focuses preventing, preparing for, and responding to the adverse he ...
(ASPR), an office within Health and Human Services. Kadlec was confirmed for this position by the United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and pow ...
on August 3, 2017, by voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
.
Office of Preparedness and Response
In January 2018, Kadlec testified to the U.S. Congress that the US was dangerously unprepared for a pandemic. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kadlec had heavily focused the office on preparing for a response to bioterror attacks, a choice that was later scrutinized. From January through March 2020, Kadlec and his team focused on evacuating U.S. nationals from cruise ships and countries hard-hit by the pandemic; Kadlec's defenders said that this focus was necessary to protect Americans, while detractors criticized him for missing opportunities to prepare for pandemic COVID-19 in the United States.[
In April 2020, Kadlec demoted federal scientist ]Rick Bright
Rick Arthur Bright is an American immunologist, vaccine researcher, and public health official. He was the director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) from 2016 to 2020. In May 2020, he filed a whistleblower ...
, removing him from his position as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) office responsible for the procurement and development of medical countermeasures, principally against bioterrorism, in ...
(BARDA) and reassigning him to a lower post at the National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
. The following month, Bright filed a wide-ranging whistleblower complaint against Kadlec and several Trump administration officials.[Nicholas Florko]
Trump administration fires back at ousted vaccine expert as he testifies on his role in U.S. coronavirus response
''Stat News'' (May 14, 2020).[ Bright asserted that Kadlec ousted him retaliation for his "insistence" that the federal government focus resources on "safe and scientifically vetted" responses to the ]COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
rather than "technologies that lack scientific merit" such as the use of hydroxychloroquine
Hydroxychloroquine, sold under the brand name Plaquenil among others, is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to chloroquine. Other uses include treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, an ...
, which had been pushed by the Trump administration.[ Bright also alleged that in January 2020, Kadlec had delayed acting to obtain face masks, testing swabs, and other materials for which there was later a shortage.][ Supporters of Bright and supporters of Kadlec each accused the other "of preferential treatment for favored contractors and inappropriate spending decisions."][ HHS denied that Bright had been retaliated against, but the ]Office of Special Counsel
The United States Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is a permanent independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency whose basic legislative authority comes from four federal statutes: the Civil Service Reform Act, the Whistleblower Prot ...
recommended Bright's reinstatement as BARDA chief,[ finding a "substantial likelihood of wrongdoing" in his ouster.][
]
Emergent BioSolutions controversies
Before being appointed by Trump as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in 2017, Kadlec previously was a consultant for Emergent BioSolutions
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is an American multinational specialty biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It develops vaccines and antibody therapeutics for infectious diseases and opioid overdoses, and it provides me ...
, a U.S. biotechnology company, and was part-owner of a company related to its founder; he did not disclose these facts in Senate nomination forms during his 2017 confirmation process. Kadlec's company RPK Consulting had provided consulting services to Emergent until 2015. Soon after taking office, Kadlec pushed to increase the government's stockpile of smallpox vaccine
The smallpox vaccine is the first vaccine to be developed against a contagious disease. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner demonstrated that an infection with the relatively mild cowpox virus conferred immunity against the deadly smallpox ...
from Emergent BioSolutions, and HHS ultimately awarded a 10-year, $2.8 billion single-source contract to the company to purchase its smallpox vaccines at twice the previous price. While renewal of the contract was initially sought on modest terms, Kadlec's office finalized the deal with double the term length (10 years instead of 5 years) and double the number of doses per year (to 18 million). This raised concerns about a potential conflict of interest.
After 15 million Janssen COVID-19 vaccine
The Janssen COVID19 vaccine, sold under the brand name Jcovden, is a COVID19 vaccine that was developed by Janssen Vaccines in Leiden, Netherlands, and its Belgian parent company Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of American company Joh ...
s were ruined due to an error by Emergent BioSolutions (who held a contract to manufacture the vaccines at a Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
production facility), a congressional investigation was launched "into whether Emergent used ties to the Trump administration to get billions of dollars in federal contracts despite a history of failing to complete contracts" as well as concerns about "inadequate staff training, persistent quality-control issues, and the company's 'unjustified' 800% price increase for an anthrax vaccine" purchased by the government.[ The inquiry, launched by the Democratic chairs of the ]House Committee on Oversight and Reform
The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the main investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.
The committee's broad jurisdiction and legislative authority make it one of the most influential and powerful panels in the ...
and Select Oversight Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, focused in part on Kadlec's role; in a letter, the chairs of the committee wrote that Kadlec "appears to have pushed for" the $628 million award to Emergent to develop the factory "despite indications that Emergent did not have the ability to reliably fulfill the contract."[
]
References
External links
Biography at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
*
" by Dr. Robert Kadlec, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.
* Videos:
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21st Century Germ Warfare
by LtC Robert P. Kadlec (Air War College, Studies in National Security No.3, Sep 1998)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kadlec, Robert
Georgetown University alumni
Living people
Trump administration personnel
United States Air Force Academy alumni
United States Air Force officers
United States Department of Health and Human Services officials
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)