Driven by politics, made possible by stupid, compliant morons.
My FIL, a yellow dog demoRAT, was complaining this morning about his high cost of Rx drugs. No, I won't say the obvious, but..........
It was an election year and gave the Democrats a huge issue to attack Trump with.
It took away Trumps biggest argument - the economy. Is there even a remote doubt how the elections would have gone had they been Nov. 2019?
It expanded government and the CDC/NIH actually saw more money pumped into them than they asked for, even with a supplemental for Covid! It expanded scope of powers, budgets and personnel...
It made for news headlines and people were watching, 24/7.
It allowed many to grandstand, may it be the likes of John Hopkins, celebrity TV doctors...
Pharma has been pushing for mandatory vaccines for years. Pharma made BILLIONS. They made unimaginable amounts of money.
Hospitals, pharmacies, anyone that knows how to play the game and has the connections was able to reach into the governments near endlessly deep pockets and rake in millions may it be for a Covid positive in a hospital, a Covid death, a Covid test...
Politicians and those looking for a chance to be in front of a camera had their opportunity (of course that also includes anyone that makes their living in the pop culture). This was a politicians dream. You can show “action in crisis.” You can show that you are a “leader that takes action” by making the hard decisions. Do something, anything, it don't matter if it makes sense. Just show action and pretend like it will somehow stop the spread, help those that are at risk or sick, bla bla bla.
Covid was a dream come true - except when it backfired in some of the more extreme cases like with Cuomo and the senior living homes.
Few of the “assholes” that jumped on this opportunity will be held to account for bad decisions made, for the economic consequences, violations of peoples basic rights, or even the damage done to peoples health with half baked ideas. Is pharma responsible for anything, present or future? Nope. What bureaucrat or politician is responsible for the broke businesses? Who will stand trial for stripping people of their rights? No one will be responsible for anything.
Take not of those few true leaders that did NOT jump on the bandwagon and demand for ever more stupid rules and government spending, example Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, DeSantis... When the train of mass hysteria leaves the station, it takles a lot of courage to be standing on the tracks and scream "stop, this isn't making any sense!"