""We would want to ensure that we work to make (the COVID-19 vaccine) affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest. Price controls won't get us there," (Federal Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex) Azar told members of Congress."
Interpretation: Your money or your life!
We expect to hear these words in a B-movie crime drama, not from the Federal Secretary of Health and Human Services. While HHS Secretary Alex Azar did not utter these exact words, they are easily inferred from his reply to the question about whether the Covid-19 antiviral drug would be "affordable" for everyone. And they raise these important questions:
What is the goal of the vaccination effort: to avoid a potential pandemic or to turn a profit for the drug manufacturers?
What is the value of a human life?
What is the value of a healthy population?
What happened to the concept of the public good?
Do we still believe that some threats to public health are so overwhelming that they need to be addressed by a strong governmental entity, as the CDC has historically done?
Coronavirus is a worldwide epidemic and an urgent crisis. The best way to protect US Citizens is to ensure that all Americans have FREE access to the Covid-19 vaccine as soon as it is produced.
Viruses don't care who has health insurance!