From a vaccine no one is sure will actually work.

Over the last year, the Obama administration has aggressively pushed a $433-million plan to buy an experimental smallpox drug, despite uncertainty over whether it is needed or will work.

Senior officials have taken unusual steps to secure the contract for New York-based Siga Technologies Inc., whose controlling shareholder is billionaire Ronald O. Perelman, one of the world’s richest men and a longtime Democratic Party donor.

When Siga complained that contracting specialists at the Department of Health and Human Services were resisting the company’s financial demands, senior officials replaced the government’s lead negotiator for the deal, interviews and documents show.

When Siga was in danger of losing its grip on the contract a year ago, the officials blocked other firms from competing.

Siga was awarded the final contract in May through a “sole-source” procurement in which it was the only company asked to submit a proposal.

In other words, administration officials rigged the system for the politically-connected company, even to the point of literally stopping other companies from competing for it. And all to get a vaccine that an epidemiologist for the FDA called “a waste of time and a waste of money”.

But hey, surely we need smallpox vaccines, right? Er, no. The disease was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1979. And even if the disease should escape controlled conditions, we have nearly $1 billion in vaccine already in stock.

In short, the administration has successfully funneled another $433 million in taxpayer funds to another Obama donor. That money will in turn go to grease the gears of Perelman donation machine, which will inevitably pour money into Democratic coffers for next year.

Well done. Well done indeed.