WHY? Under no circumstances can ANY pharma company allow this administration to fastback a COVID vaccine for political purposes. To do so would derail our drug safety and lead to patients and HCP’s to question all prescription drug data. Pharma has to fight with everything in their arsenal.
The news this week on healthcare has been dismal and Americans are going to suffer. First in “stunning declaration of authority, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, this week barred the nation’s health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, from signing any new rules regarding the nation’s foods, medicines, medical devices and other products, including vaccines”.
Then President Trump, who seems intent on announcing a Covid-19 vaccine before Election Day, could legally authorize a vaccine over the objections of experts, officials at the Food and Drug Administration and even vaccine manufacturers, who have pledged not to release any vaccine unless it’s proved safe and effective.
If that wasn’t bad enough the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has raised the profile of a case that marks the latest existential threat to the Affordable Care Act. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case the week after the general election in November. Not only will the health care of tens of millions of people be on the line — so too could the very future of the Supreme Court itself.
A ruling that the ACA is unconstitutional next spring would be a political earthquake. A huge number of people would lose access to health care. Moreover, if Democrats re-take the White House and the Senate, they will be considering proposals to take measures to counter the Trumpified federal judiciary, such as expanding the number of seats on the Supreme Court. A decision that would strip tens of millions of people of their health insurance based on legal arguments so weak that to re-state them is to refute them would be a gift to people who favor expanding the judiciary (and other reform measures, such as granting statehood to Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico).
Under no circumstances can ANY pharma company agree to an expedited approval of a COVID vaccine. To do so would mean an end to ANY trust in prescription drugs and their safety. The AMA and insurers also need to be heard loud and clear on this issue. We cannot allow an incompetent administration to put politics ahead of patient safety. There is too much at stake including the future of healthcare in the United States.
Politics aside every healthcare organization must take a stand against the use of politics in healthcare. If they remain silent then they are complicit in this crime against us and American healthcare will take a huge step backward. PLEASE make your voices heard!!