OPINION:
President Joe Biden just announced a plan to buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus shot to distribute around the world “with no strings attached,” simply “to save lives” and “to end this pandemic,” he said.
Isn’t that special. But when Joe Biden gives, it’s not from his own pockets. It’s from yours. Mine. All of ours. All of America’s taxpayers’, in fact.
“We’re a nation full of people who step up at times of need to help our fellow human beings, both at home and abroad,” Biden said, in making his announcement. “We’re not perfect, but we step up.”
It’s easy to spend other people’s money, isn’t it?
Biden didn’t elaborate this point, but let’s be clear: When he talks about purchasing 500 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, he’s talking about using U.S. tax dollars to make the purchase. Another way to look at it: If Peter is the American taxpayer and Paul, the Third World, Joe Biden is trying to play Jesus. Or rather, a skewed version of Jesus, the one who pushes socialism as biblical.
“US ‘to buy 500 million Covid vaccine doses for world,” the BBC headline of Biden’s announcement read.
Yes. That’s the more truthful way to put it. After all, this isn’t an announcement about Pfizer giving away 500 million shots to the world. It’s an announcement about Americans purchasing the shots from Pfizer to then distribute to the world. And we don’t have the actual dollars and cents on the costs-to-taxpayers for this big redistribution of vaccine-tied dollars give-away just yet; the White House hasn’t exactly been forthcoming on that detail. But “people familiar with the deal told the New York Times that the US would pay for the doses at a ‘not-for-profit’ price,” BBC wrote.
Great.
Biden, it seems, cut a good deal so taxpayers don’t have to pay full price. Still, there are plenty more vaccine dollars where that came from. Tucked away in recent COVID-related bills were congressional approvals of $4 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, to spend on “multilateral COVID-19 vaccine efforts,” and various supplemental appropriations totaling $15 billion for a “range” of other “global COVID-19 responses,” as the Congressional Research Service reported.
The COVID vaccine market is really taking off.
It’s becoming almost as lucrative as the radical environmentalist’s sale of credits on the carbon dioxide market — you know, the one where the government generates the fear to fabricate a market that then becomes a most lucrative government-corporate-special agenda cash cow?
Vaccines, meet Covax.
Covax, according to its website description, is “one of three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, which was launched in April by the World Health Organization, the European Commission and France in response to this pandemic.” What’s it do? It unites governments, global health bureaucrats, vaccine makers, scientists, philanthropists and private sector players in the diagnosis in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, and the administration of coronavirus vaccines. And then whatever other vaccines come down the pike.
Selling fear is fun. And profitable.
It’s a project, too, of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, an organization started in 1999 with $750 million seed money from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — you know, the foundation headed by the guy at the helm of pushing coronavirus vaccines for the entire world. The foundation tied through its Decade of Vaccines program to Anthony Fauci, the other guy at the helm of pushing coronavirus vaccines for the entire world.
There are more, many more, twists and turns and puzzling conflicts of interests on this path of coronavirus vaccine development and distribution to explore. But when it comes to Covax, one tidbit to definitely note is this enticement to pertinent players — like the U.S. government — to join forces with Covax and vaccinate the world: “By joining the [Covax] Facility, participating countries and economies will not only get access to the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines, but also an actively managed portfolio. The Facility continually monitors the COVID-19 vaccine landscape to identify the most suitable vaccine candidates, based on scientific merit and scalability, and works with manufacturers to incentivise them to expand their production capacity in advance of vaccines receiving regulatory approval,” Gavi.org wrote.
Covax, at its root, is sort of a bypass of all the vaccine-permitting requirements — i.e., safety measures — from all the various levels of bureaucracies in all the various levels of government. Wanna get a vaccine approved and sold quickly? Forget that cumbersome Food and Drug Administration process; forget even that public relations-shaky emergency use authorization method. Go to Covax. Join the Covax Facility. Covax has got yer back. The organization identifies markets for vaccines, serves as a conduit between manufacturers and governments to get these newly developed shots into people’s arms, and it does it all in a way that speeds right by the normal safety measures that make it so tough for pharmaceutical companies to turn their years of research and development into actual profit.
So what’s Joe Biden get from this deal?
Who knows. Political capital? Cold hard cash? An expansion of the circle of globalist governance? A weekend get-away in Venezuela and a specially arranged dinner with Nicolas Maduro to talk shop? Again, who knows.
What is known, though, is U.S. taxpayers are footing this Gavi-Covax-coronavirus-vaccine-giveaway multi-million, multi-billion dollar bill. And you can be sure taxpayers aren’t going to see any financial return on the investment.
Investment? Wait. Make that scheme.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.