The U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) was created in 2006 by the “Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act” within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 2020, its budget was estimated at US$ 1.6 billion, much of which goes to Project BioShield, “which funds the research, development and stockpiling of vaccines and treatments that the government could use during public health emergencies such as chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) attacks”.
But why does this agency raise millions of chickens?
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/health/chicken-egg-flu-vaccine-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
Across the United States, prized chickens are laying life-saving eggs at secret farms.
Few people know where the chickens are kept – their locations are undisclosed as a matter of national security.
Each day, hundreds of thousands of their eggs are trucked to facilities, where they are protected by guards and multimillion-dollar, government-funded security systems.
But these eggs aren’t for breakfast; they’re the source of your common flu shot.
For the past 80 years, much of the world has relied on chicken eggs for the production of influenza vaccines.
About 174.5 million doses of the flu vaccine were distributed across the US this flu season through the end of February, of which an estimated 82% were egg-based, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
With each egg producing one vaccine, that means the US might have used 140 million eggs this flu season alone.
Well, that’s what they say anyway. Secret government facilities raising millions of chickens, “protected by guards and multimillion-dollar, government-funded security systems”, sounds like something a Bond villain would come up with, or else the plot of a forthcoming X-Files movie. “Scully, look”, Mulder says, peering through the hole he’s drilled into the sealed building. “it’s chickens, millions of chickens.”