The Blagojevich Effect

6:40 pm, 8/6/07

The Blagojevich Effect

Remember those flu vaccines that Governor Blagojevich bought from European suppliers to cover the "shortage" (a media-manufactured illusion, since we ended the season with 4.5 million vaccinations left), but then found he couldn't legally import into the United States? Remember how he ended up getting the state sued when other state officials refused to write a check to cover Blagojevich's renegade, irresponsible stunt, even as the vaccinations expired in European freezers?

Leave it to Rod, the Lord of the Gaffe, to nearly turn a bad situation into an international incident involving a major Islamic nation.

Blagojevich announced his solution in December 2005 -- the state would donate the medicine to Pakistan, which was then reeling from an earthquake that had killed 80,000 and left millions homeless.

"We are in a unique position to help thousands of Pakistanis who are struggling to recover from a terrible tragedy," Blagojevich said in a statement.

It turns out, Pakistani officials say, the vaccines never helped anyone.

There's just one catch: Blagojevich never told the Pakistanis that the vaccines were expired. When they found out, they were not too happy.

Instead, health authorities in Pakistan crushed and burned the half-million doses because they wouldn't give their people an expired vaccine, according to interviews and government records.

Some sources claimed that not all the vaccine was destroyed and that a portion found its way onto the black market. Exhaustive attempts by the Tribune to confirm this were unsuccessful. After several weeks of repeated requests by the Tribune, Pakistani officials turned over records documenting destruction of the medicine.

The vaccine, received in shipments weighing nearly 9 tons, was refrigerated for months before being destroyed in November 2006, the records show.

Pakistani health officials said they accepted the inoculations not knowing they had expired months earlier. They ultimately rejected the assurances of the European distributor, Ecosse Hospital Products Ltd., that the vaccines were independently tested and still potent.

"After all, human beings are equal," said retired Lt. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan, who ran the Federal Relief Cell that coordinated earthquake relief in the first five months after the disaster. "They are not guinea pigs. And vaccines, if they are not good in one country, they should not be usable in another country."

The Pakistan government didn't publicize the destruction of the vaccines, in part, to preserve good relations with an ally.

"Remember, the vaccine was sent by the Americans," said a Pakistani government source speaking on the condition on anonymity. "You could get into trouble with diplomatic relations between the two countries."

The Pakistanis probably don't realize who Blagojevich is. Nobody's going to burn any Dixie Chicks CDs over him.

"This was a bad deal from the beginning," said [Comptroller] Hynes, who was surprised when told the vaccines were destroyed. "I just want to make sure that Illinois taxpayers aren't the ones holding the bag."

The state auditor general later blasted the governor's effort as an unlawful attempt to bypass regulators.

On Dec. 30, as the first shipment arrived, Blagojevich announced the donations in a news release, saying he hoped the vaccines "will be put to use to protect people who were left homeless, weak and vulnerable after the devastating earthquake and now are in dire need of protection from influenza this winter."

He also included a quote from the Pakistani consul general in Chicago, praising "Gov. Blagojevich's concern for the earthquake victims in Pakistan as well as the Pakistani-Americans who have been tragically touched through loss of family and friends.

"Any effort to help Pakistan in its hour of need is welcome."

But a Jan. 9, 2006, e-mail obtained by the Tribune shows that just days after receiving the first shipment, Pakistani officials were threatening not to use the vaccine.

"I am deeply frustrated by the Ministry of Health's refusal to use the vaccines," Ecosse's Cochrane wrote in his e-mail to Azhar Mahmood Kayani, the Pakistani prime minister's personal physician, who negotiated the delivery with Cochrane.

In the e-mail, Cochrane reminded Kayani that the vaccines had been tested and shown to be safe by an independent institute that works for the World Health Organization.

"We did not ask for these vaccines, and when we accepted them we did not know they were expired."

The Blagojevich administration said in its statement last week that the last it heard the Pakistanis were happy and the donation was an appropriate ending to a saga.

And the governor, who has previously described his pursuit of the vaccines as "probably the best decision I've ever made," still maintains Illinois should write the check.

...and I maintain Ecosse should consider the idea of suing Blagojevich personally. It was his illegal scheme, and the State of Illinois is right to renounce it, but it's a shame Hynes and his supporters didn't do it before the contracts were ever signed.

Look on the bright side: At least Blagojevich didn't "pull an Obama" and threaten to bomb them over it, spurring violent, anti-American street protests.