Biden sounds like a drug pusher

OPINION:

A heavily vaccinated-slash-boosted President Biden emerged from his five COVID-19 test-positive days of isolation, mounted the Rose Garden platform and removed his black face mask but not sunglasses, and then proceeded to advise American citizens to wear face masks, get the COVID shot and get boosted and boosted again — in other words, to do all the things he did and continues to do but that failed to keep him from catching COVID.  

He sounds like a drug pusher for the pharmaceuticals.

Now there’s a COVID pill, in addition to the shots. And guess who took the pill and wants you to take the pill, too?

“If you test positive [for COVID], we have a new powerful treatment called Paxlovid. It wasn’t available a year ago. It’s a pill. Get them for free at tens of thousands of local drugstores around the country,” Biden said. 

“The FDA even put in a special rule so that many pharmacists can prescribe this special drug so you don’t even have to go to the doctor to get this prescription,” Biden also said.

That’s called tax dollars at work, Democrat-style.

And whereas America used to stand tall on the principle of personal accountability and self-care, and paying for, say, one’s own health choices, today’s Democrats bluntly brag about the money they’re wrested from tax coffers to use for purposes that the Constitution doesn’t actually allow. Take about a stretch of the general welfare clause.

This administration, as Biden boasted, has just spent billions of dollars on installing special ventilation systems in schools and public buildings, and on test kits for the coronavirus, and on face masks for the coronavirus, and on medical treatments for the coronavirus — enough for every man, woman and child in America. For free. Well, at taxpayer expense — but to Democrats, that’s what “free” means.  

Biden is becoming the face of the freebie medical movement that’s moving across America at alarming pace. Not only are Americans seeing their pockets picked for health care products and supplies that the test-positive Biden himself proves don’t work, but in the process, America the free is being turned into America the nanny state. What role did the Founding Fathers envision for the feds in terms of buying face masks for citizens, or purchasing pills from Big Pharma? Hmm, we’ll take “none” for $200, Alex.

Back to Biden in the Rose Garden: “So you can take one [of these tests] before attending a large indoor gathering or visiting with high-risk individuals. We’ve made high quality masks available for free so you should consider wearing a mask when you’re in a crowded indoor public place. These precautions add an extra layer of protection for you and for those around you,” he said.

And by “extra layer of protection,” it’s meant that they don’t really protect from getting COVID or a variant of COVID, or passing along COVID or a variant of COVID to someone else, but they sure do give an image of protecting. They sure do virtue signal that you’re trying.

To Democrats, the virtue signal is just as good as the actual achievement. Better even, in many cases.

“Most COVID deaths are among those who are not up to date on their shots,” Biden said. “So if you’re over 50 and you haven’t gotten a booster shot this year, go get one right away. Go to COVID.gov, type in your ZIP code and find a place where you can get a booster shot for free, usually at a site that’s less than five miles from your home.”

The drug pusher is hard at work pushing hard for the next batch of COVID-tied drug sales.

Pfizer, granted an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to sell Paxlovid in the United States, has the market mostly cornered on this drug and is expected to rake in more than $23 billion this year alone. 

Meanwhile, COVID money continues to flow elsewhere.

3M, a respirator manufacturer based in St. Paul, Minnesota, reported $40 million in earnings above expectations in mask sales in the fourth quarter of 2021, with more good news on the way based on the Biden plan to distribute N95 masks for “free” — that is to say, the Biden plan to take tax dollars and buy millions of more masks from this company.

And of course, this: “COVID vaccines are set to be among the most lucrative pharmaceutical products ever,” NPR reported back in November of 2021.

“New figures from the Peoples Vaccine Alliance reveal that the companies behind two of the most successful COVID-19 vaccines — Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna — are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute,” Relief Web wrote that same month.

“Pfizer signs new $3.2 billion COVID vaccine deal with U.S. government,” Reuters reported in June, 2022.

COVID money makes the world go ‘round, it seems.

From U.S. taxpayer to Big Pharma pocket, with politicians serving as the go-between. It’s great business when the same people who make policy are in bed with those who make profits. 

But for American citizens, all this politicized COVID spending is tipping the nation toward tyranny.

Citizens are being conditioned to believe it’s the government’s place to provide medical care — for “free”; that it’s the good citizen’s responsibility to accept this medical care — for the good of the collective; and that it’s a president’s constitutionally proper purpose to be a caretaker for citizens — to be a dear leader with compassion for the masses, more than an elected servant of the people and defender of God-given liberties.

And, of course, this is all by Democrat design. 

• 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 and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE  or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.