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Deadly Delays
Townhall.com ^ | December 15, 2021 | John Stossel

Posted on 12/15/2021 3:46:53 AM PST by Kaslin

COVID-19 deaths are up. Politicians tell us to wear masks and get vaccinated.

Amid the fear, I'm surprised that we haven't heard more about two drugs that could make COVID-19 much less of a threat.

In blind tests, Pfizer's Paxlovid was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89%! It was so effective that Pfizer was advised to stop the tests.

"They halted the clinical trials!" exclaims Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the Cato Institute in my new video.

"They decided it would be unethical (not to give the drug to people in the control group.) But if it's unethical to deny them the drug, it's unethical to deny the American public that drug!"

Excellent point. Yet that's what the Food and Drug Administration is doing. They force us to wait until they're sure all drugs "meet the agency's rigorous standards."

How long might they delay?

"If the FDA is following its current practice," says Cannon, "it'll be a matter of months."

Months is an improvement over the 10 years it usually takes the FDA. During the pandemic, the FDA loosened regulations to get some medicines to people faster.

"(But) we're still losing thousands of lives unnecessarily," complains Cannon.

At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, the FDA delayed approval of many AIDS drugs. Some Americans formed "buyers clubs" to purchase AIDS drugs from Mexico. That's what the movie "Dallas Buyers Club" was about.

But buying unapproved drugs from other countries is illegal.

Now the United Kingdom has approved molnupiravir, Merck's coronavirus antiviral pill. In tests, it cut hospitalization by 30%.

But we can't try it in America. "More input is needed," says the FDA.

More input is always helpful, but our FDA is just slow.

"The United Kingdom approved molnupiravir back at the beginning of November," Cannon points out. "The FDA didn't even meet to decide whether to approve it until the end of November. In the meantime, thousands of Americans died."

While people die, President Joe Biden praises the FDA for their "hard work."

"We shouldn't be praising them for doing a job that no one should be doing, which is violating your rights," says Cannon. "If we just gave patients the freedom to purchase drugs other countries had approved, we would go a long way toward restoring your right to make your own health decisions."

FDA regulators don't want to kill people, but they do have an incentive to work slowly. If they approve a drug that hurts someone, they'll get horrible publicity. They may get fired.

But when people die from delayed approval, no bureaucrat gets in trouble. We don't know which people might have been saved.

"That's why the FDA always tries to make sure that it never lets an unsafe drug on the market," says Cannon. "Even if the cost is years of delay and many, many lives lost."

His solution: Have no FDA.

I push back. "Some people would try drugs that would kill them."

"Yes, some people would have adverse drug events," he replies. "But the number of lives that we would save would absolutely swamp the number of lives that we lose to unsafe drugs."

The FDA was created 100 years ago because some people were harmed by quack medicines. But of course, some still are.

"The entire premise of an agency like the FDA is that you're not smart enough to make these decisions for yourself," says Cannon.

But maybe we're not smart enough, I tell him. "I'm not smart enough to judge whether a pill really works or I'm being sold snake oil."

"It's not true that you're not smart enough to make this decision yourself, John," he says. "You can consult experts, your physician, medical journals, Consumer Reports. You can consult government regulatory agencies in other countries. Every day the FDA delays costs lives."

He's right.

Once a regulatory agency is created, we tend to assume that only government can do the job. But that's not true.

"The FDA needs to get out of the way," concludes Cannon. "Let patients make decisions for themselves."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: covid; covidvaccine; fda; pandemic

1 posted on 12/15/2021 3:46:53 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The same goes for Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin.


2 posted on 12/15/2021 3:53:56 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore.)
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To: Kaslin

If masks worked, covid would have been gone last year.

If vaccines worked, covid would be decreasing at a rapid rate.

When the strategy fails, a new plan should be created, not more of the failed plan. That is unless what is happening isn’t a failure. If the strategy was to control people and reduce the population while convincing them it was for the greater good, the plan is working spectacularly.


3 posted on 12/15/2021 3:55:38 AM PST by Dutch Boy (The only thing worse than having something taken from you is to have it returned broken. )
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To: Kaslin

And.
A 75 year baud rate is endemic of all democrat brain disfunctionality.


4 posted on 12/15/2021 4:11:38 AM PST by Recompennation (Don’t blame me my vote didn’t count..)
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To: Kaslin

FDA is there to protect the drug companies, not the people.


5 posted on 12/15/2021 4:52:13 AM PST by Overtaxed (Stiff the Fed)
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To: Kaslin
Common sense solutions never seem to occur to bigbrofedguv. They could easily establish a standard tiers for drugs that have competed the approval process, those currently under trial with readily available trial results, and the newest, untested drugs that would fall under “right to try”. The conditions would be informed consent meaning they could not take legal action for the lower two tiers.

But this would make too much sense and save too many lives.

6 posted on 12/15/2021 4:54:36 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists...Socialists...Fascists & AntiFa...Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Kaslin

This article is a red herring. A distraction. Drugs that work are already approved and are being blocked for the profit and for control. That is the evil. What the article purposes is madness, a football field of Thalidomide babies lies down that path.
There needs to be a body whose job it is to keep Pharmy companies honest and review the research & testing objectively, look for holes and coverups. The problem is, right now, that body is corrupt.


7 posted on 12/15/2021 4:57:03 AM PST by JayGalt (For evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing.”)
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To: Kaslin

“At the beginning of the AIDS crisis, the FDA delayed approval of many AIDS drugs. Some Americans formed “buyers clubs” to purchase AIDS drugs from Mexico. That’s what the movie “Dallas Buyers Club” was about.”

So, AIDS was a crisis, when it should have been a pandemic, and Covid is a plandemic when it should have been a nothing burger based on proper and early treatment of symptoms remarkably flu like.

In both cases people died in large numbers, but in the case of covid, it seemed the overall death numbers were not statistically greater than the annual average death rate without covid.


8 posted on 12/15/2021 5:14:57 AM PST by wita (Always and forever, under oath in defense of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.)
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To: Kaslin

“Pfizer’s Paxlovid was found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death by 89% - It was so effective that Pfizer was advised to stop the tests.”

Ummmm - isn’t Paxlovid their newer, more expensive form of Ivermectin?


9 posted on 12/15/2021 5:40:35 AM PST by trebb (Fight like your life and future depends on it - because they do.)
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To: Kaslin

I would suggest continuing the study and also releasing the drug on an emergency status; we need to have full clinical trials to identify short and long-term side effects; without that, there can be no informed consent—the crux of the crisis of trust between the people and the government / big Pharma over all things Covid. Let the people know that the drug seems to be working very well, but that they are taking a risk on unknown factors, and let them make the decision with their doctors.


10 posted on 12/15/2021 6:25:38 AM PST by _longranger81
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To: Cobra64

The ‘new’ Pfizer pill is based on IVERMECTIN........


11 posted on 12/15/2021 8:06:56 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: trebb

It’s another protease inhibitors.

Get a load of this...

https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/us_government_to_pay_$5.3bn_for_pfizers_paxlovid_1383830?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=2&;

Ka ching!


12 posted on 12/15/2021 8:13:41 AM PST by mewzilla (Those aren't masks. They're muzzles. )
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To: ridesthemiles

Yup, I truly believe that. They’ll add a little aspirin in the Merck Ivermectin mix obtain a new patent, and charge $20.00 a pill.


13 posted on 12/15/2021 10:25:54 AM PST by Cobra64 (Common sense isn’t common anymore.)
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To: mewzilla

Yep - they know Ivermectin works and they also know why - but had to add some AIDS “medicine” to the mixture to cash in - then they decide to not push it because it might actually help end Covid.


14 posted on 12/16/2021 4:02:01 AM PST by trebb (Fight like your life and future depends on it - because they do.)
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