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Coronavirus Response Highlights Myriad Problems With American Politics and Policies
Townhall.com ^ | March 25, 2020 | H. Sterling Burnett

Posted on 03/25/2020 4:38:28 PM PDT by Kaslin

The illness and death wrought by the coronavirus, and the economic fallout from the federal and state governments’ responses to it, are truly frightening to behold, resulting in wrenching changes to peoples’ lives and livelihoods.

Rahm Emanuel, a former senior advisor to President Clinton, chief-of-staff to President Barack Obama, and the mayor of Chicago, is infamous for his quip, “never let a good crisis to go to waste when it’s an opportunity to do things that you had never considered, or that you didn't think were possible.”

Taking Emanuel’s admonishment to heart, Democrats played politics with peoples’ lives during the coronavirus stimulus bill negotiation. Rather than passing a clean bill to quickly disperse money to workers and small businesses, Democrats used the crisis to extort liberal policy concessions from Republicans.

What does increasing the collective bargaining power of public employee unions have to do with delivering needed aid to those sickened by or left unemployed by coronavirus? Nothing!

What does extending subsidies to massive solar and wind energy companies have to do with fighting the coronavirus? Nothing!

As planes fly empty or sit idle on runways, and flight crews and support staff file for unemployment, what does forcing airlines to cut carbon dioxide emissions have to do with keeping the industry afloat amidst the pandemic? Nothing!

What does more millions of dollars for the Washington swamp creatures’ favorite performance hall, the Kennedy Center, have to do with Coronavirus relief? Nothing!

People are dying, being hospitalized, and struggling with sudden and startling joblessness. They are wondering how they will afford their next trip to the grocery store or pay their mortgage, rent or other bills. Shamefully, Democrats ignored the urgent needs of hardworking American people by choosing to play a political game of chicken in an attempt to pay off political constituencies including environmentalists, unions, and big green energy billionaires. This is disgraceful!

Adding insult to injury, over time, federal and state governments have imposed a number of policies that have slowed the response to the coronavirus and could exacerbate its damage.

Because of the byzantine U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process, it takes more than 10 years and $2.6 billion on average for a new medicine or medical devise to become commercially available. For COVID-19, federal regulators are promising to cut the red tape and rush a treatment to market, ignoring the normal process. But what about the next pandemic? And what does this say about the process itself and about the millions of people suffering from existing illnesses or who are dying because FDA regulations slow the development of drugs that could save or improve their lives? The coronavirus highlights the need for substantial FDA reform to speed the normal drug approval process, obviating the need to short-circuit it during pandemics or similar health crises.

Then there are state Certificate of Need (CON) laws. About 30 states have laws in place to protect big hospitals and hospital chains from competition, having established boards or commissions who review and approve or deny the creation of new clinics, hospitals, and medical facilities, and even the medical devices or technologies used therein. In states with CON laws, when a company or group of doctors wishes to open a new medical facility it must receive approval from the regulatory body that looks at the number of beds, MRIs, incubators, respirators, etc. in the area it would service and then, pretending to have infinite wisdom, decide whether such a facility and its additional devices are “necessary” to serve the population.

Rather than letting the medical facility open, and bear the risk of success or failure in the marketplace—as we do with restaurants, stores, tattoo parlors and the like—possibly offering better, more timely, less expensive health services, CON law commissions, with the support of big hospital chains, often deny new facilities.

These regulations stifle innovation and competition—as they were designed to do from the start—and are partly responsible for the shortage of beds and critical medical devices that currently plague cities confronting the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic. Now legislators and governors, they who caused the shortages, are praying the federal government will bail them out by building emergency hospitals and supplying critical medical equipment.

The COVID-19 crisis also highlights a harmful nanny-state anti-freedom policy pushed by misanthropic environmental scolds that endangers public health: plastic bag bans. Plastic bags, straws, utensils, and Styrofoam containers are the most sterile means of transporting cooked, raw, and packaged foods. Yet many cities and states across the nation have banned them. These draconian bans have forced restaurants to package leftovers and carry-out foods in less sterile cardboard containers, which, unlike plastic, either leak or absorb spilled liquid and moisture from hot foods creating breeding grounds for bacteria.

In addition, in many states and cities, shoppers at grocery stores are forced by law to use either paper bags or reusable bags to transport their groceries. Reusable bags also absorb moisture and studies show, in normal use, are a breeding ground for potentially deadly pathogens. During the coronavirus pandemic, in cities and states where they have forced restaurants to close except for providing carry-out, if they have also banned plastic and Styrofoam containers, they are putting pick-up patrons at unnecessary health risk.

Before the shock and horror of the COVID-19 crisis fades from the public’s attention, while the headlines and lead stories are fresh in peoples' minds, now is the time to demand changes in our nation’s politics and policies. Politicians who delay or defeat emergency relief measures during a crisis, to reward special interests by extorting political concessions, should be voted out of office.

Sadly, this tactic is all too common during end of year budget battles when the threat is “give me what I want or I’ll shut down the government.” In addition, now is the time for the public to demand FDA reform, and an end to state CON laws and state and local plastic bag bans. These misguided policies threaten public health and the environment.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: congress; coronavirus; politics; publichealth

1 posted on 03/25/2020 4:38:28 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
New York City hasn’t even shut down their SUBWAY SYSTEM.

Think about that the next time some dope governor or mayor orders you to restrict your freedom in any way “to stop the spread of the virus.”

I’m probably violating some kind of government directive related to this viral outbreak at least a dozen times every day. I’m not even doing it deliberately anymore, either ... I just don’t even bother reading or tuning into any news source where I might hear about such a directive.

2 posted on 03/25/2020 4:59:51 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And somewhere in the darkness ... the gambler, he broke even.")
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To: Alberta's Child

Successful therapy against Covid-19 virus from New York State:

Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko Board Certified Family Practitioner 501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950 845-238-0000

March 23, 2020

To all medical professionals around the world:

My name is Dr. Zev Zelenko and I practice medicine in Monroe, NY. For the last 16 years, I have cared for approximately 75% of the adult population of Kiryas Joel, which is a very close knit community of approximately 35,000 people in which the infection spread rapidly and unchecked prior to the imposition of social distancing.

As of today my team has tested approximately 200 people from this community for Covid-19, and 65% of the results have been positive. If extrapolated to the entire community, that means more than 20,000 people are infected at the present time. Of this group, I estimate that there are 1500 patients who are in the high-risk category (i.e. >60, immunocompromised, comorbidities, etc).

Given the urgency of the situation, I developed the following treatment protocol in the pre-hospital setting and have seen only positive results:

1. Any patient with shortness of breath regardless of age is treated.

2. Any patient in the high-risk category even with just mild symptoms is treated.

3. Young, healthy and low risk patients even with symptoms are not treated (unless their circumstances change and they fall into category 1 or 2).

My out-patient treatment regimen is as follows:

1. Hydroxychloroquine 200mg twice a day for 5 days

2. Azithromycin 500mg once a day for 5 days

3. Zinc sulfate 220mg once a day for 5 days

The rationale for my treatment plan is as follows. I combined the data available from China and South Korea with the recent study published from France (sites available on request). We know that hydroxychloroquine helps Zinc enter the cell. We know that Zinc slows viral replication within the cell. Regarding the use of azithromycin, I postulate it prevents secondary bacterial infections. These three drugs are well known and usually well tolerated, hence the risk to the patient is low.

Since last Thursday, my team has treated approximately 350 patients in Kiryas Joel and another 150 patients in other areas of New York with the above regimen.

Of this group and the information provided to me by affiliated medical teams, we have had ZERO deaths, ZERO hospitalizations, and ZERO intubations. In addition, I have not heard of any negative side effects other than approximately 10% of patients with temporary nausea and diarrhea.

In sum, my urgent recommendation is to initiate treatment in the outpatient setting as soon as possible in accordance with the above. Based on my direct experience, it prevents acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), prevents the need for hospitalization and saves lives.

With much respect,

Dr. Zev Zelenko

cc: President Donald J. Trump; Mr. Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff

Video at Link

https://matzav.com/watch-kiryas-yoel-dr-zev-zelenko-to-trump-im-seeing-success-with-your-approved-drug/?fbclid=IwAR0gVHAW9kWF-JLRHjzQx9bSFx6jlRgTn9_PpAmaiykXhsVqTE7wJrddS4g

8 posted on 3/24/2020, 5:02:30 PM by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism)http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2009/05/barack_obam_the_quintessentia_1.html))


3 posted on 03/25/2020 5:15:43 PM PDT by Norski
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To: Alberta's Child

The New York City subway system is the biggest public urinal in the Western world.


4 posted on 03/25/2020 5:47:28 PM PDT by jmacusa (If we're all equal how is diversity our strength?)
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To: Norski

“...Successful therapy against Covid-19 virus from New York State:

Dr. Vladimir (Zev) Zelenko Board Certified Family Practitioner 501 Rt 208, Monroe, NY 10950 845-238-0000

March 23, 2020...”
*********************************************************
Well, Doctor....your DESPICABLE governor Cuomo has now made your treatment ILLEGAL unless the patient is now part of an approved clinical; trial. THE DEMOCRATS ARE PISSED THAT YOU’VE BEEN HELPING YOUR PATIENTS AVOID DEATH. They WANT more deaths! That’s becoming clear.


5 posted on 03/25/2020 6:38:41 PM PDT by House Atreides (It is not a HOAX but it IS A PRETEXT!)
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