Department of hmm. . .

Business Insider, May 16 - The former pharma executive tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the federal government's hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine has more than $10 million in stock options in one of the companies receiving federal funding. 

Dr Moncef Slaoui, a Belgian-American, was this week named Chief Scientist for Trump's "Operation Warp Speed," which aims to develop a working vaccine as fast as possible.  

Slaoui addressed the media in a press conference on Friday in the White House Rose Garden, where Trump described him as one of the world's pre-eminent experts on vaccines...

In order to take up the position, Slaoui resigned his role on the board of directors for Moderna Inc., a biotech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to the Associated Press, Slaoui's White House role is unpaid.

However, filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show that Slaoui continues to hold valuable stock options in Moderna.

Described across four separate filings, Slaoui has 155,438 options in Moderna. The stake is worth $10,366,000 at Moderna's current share price, $66.69 at the time of publication.

Reuters, May 18 = Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine showed promise in a small early-stage trial, with the vaccine producing virus-neutralizing antibodies similar to that found in recovered patients, sending shares soaring 25%.

Washington Post, May 18 - Slaoui, stepped down from the board to become chief scientist for Operation Warp Speed, a White House initiative to speed up vaccine development. Watchdogs called out Slaoui’s apparent conflict of interest. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Slaoui’s stock options in Moderna are worth more than $10 million with the company’s share price at $66.69. In pre-market trading Monday, Moderna’s stock soared as high as 30 percent to nearly $87.

Moderna also received $483 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a federal agency.

“Slaoui’s blatant financial conflicts of interest disqualify him for the role of vaccine czar, unless he commits immediately to global vaccine access conditions over the obvious profit interests of the corporations he serves,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for Slaoui to divest his stock options, tweeting it is “a huge conflict of interest for the White House’s new vaccine czar to own $10 million of stock in a company receiving government funding to develop a covid-19 vaccine.”