Thursday, September 10, 2020

When Should the War Against Biden's Neoliberalism Begin?

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The plague doctor cometh, and he don't cometh cheap.

by Thomas Neuburger

A re-elected Trump will almost certainly be welcomed with a General Strike.
—Yours truly

Cynic that I am, I'm convinced that Biden will betray us the minute he's in office. OK, not the exact minute, but pretty soon thereafter.

His current campaign promises include...
...and a host of other travesties, indignities and tortures he plans to force on the plebs from his "practical, centrist" seat at the peak of power.

But the worst of his policies, one that's likely to come the soonest, involves Covid and its soon-to-be-produced vaccine.

In a moral world, the vaccine would be made free to the citizens of any nation with access to it. In a practical world, it would be given to everyone with an arm or hip capable of receiving the needle. How else can the virus be removed from the population, except by universal vaccination? This, for example, was how polio was wiped out — for years, every school child in America of a certain age was vaccinated for free.

The neoliberal world, however — the world of government-protected and government-supplied profit — is not a moral world. It's not even a practical world. Which means that biotech companies will vie with each other to soak the population of as many dollars as they can and withhold the vaccine from any who can't pay.

Gilead Floats a "Deal"

Consider this from Matt Taibbi, in a piece titled, "Big Pharma’s Covid-19 Profiteers: How the race to develop treatments and a vaccine will create a historic windfall for the industry — and everyone else will pay the price."

Daniel O'Day, the CEO of Gilead, makers of remdesivir, an already existing drug with promising Covid treatment possibilities, recently played a one-two game with what it thinks the drug's new pricing ought to be, assuming the approvals come in as expected.

Note the twisted logic he uses to get to his implied price — $48,000 per dose:
In a breezy open letter, Daniel O’Day explained how much his company planned on charging for a course of remdesivir, one of many possible treatments for Covid-19. “In the weeks since we learned of remdesivir’s potential against Covid-19, one topic has attracted more speculation than any other: what price we might set for the medicine,” O’Day wrote, before plunging into a masterpiece of corporate doublespeak.

The CEO noted a study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, showing that Covid-19 patients taking remdesivir recovered after 11 days, compared with 15 days for placebo takers. In the U.S., he wrote, “earlier hospital discharge would result in hospital savings of approximately $12,000 per patient.”

The hilarious implication seemed to be that by shortening hospital stays by four days on average, remdesivir was worth $48,000 a dose.
One, Gilead could charge $48,000 for the drug. But two, Gilead was inclined to be generous: "Although 'we can see the value that remdesivir provides' — i.e., we could have charged $48,000 per dose — Day wrote, 'we have decided to price remdesivir well below this value' ... a measly $3,120 per patient."

A great many drugs, new and repurposed, are swirling in the Covid world, some as treatments and some as vaccines. One of the latter, in fact, is Russian (perish the thought!) and according to The Lancet, the premier British medical journal, it may be promising.

If the vaccine proves effective, the Russians, just to piss us off, might even decide to make it available for free. But I don't think any Western-produced vaccine, or treatment, will be offered so generously.

Covid Treatments and Vaccines Should Be Free to the User

Yet it's impossible, on moral or practical grounds, to make the case, that during a global pandemic (a) the price should be a multiple of the cost of manufacture; and (b) any user should spend a single dollar to receive it.

This is a perfect place for government intervention into the "free" market (it's really a captive market) on behalf of the citizens it claims to represent and protect. First, any Covid vaccine or treatment should cost a fraction, not a multiple, above the cost of manufacture — i.e., profits should be kept low. And second, government should be the purchaser of these drugs, not the patient, and should provide them to patients for free.

At least one vaccine of decent effectiveness is likely to come, at latest, sometime next year, perhaps less than six months into Biden's first year in office. Treatments may come sooner than that. (By the way, there's a very promising avenue of treatment — with existing drugs and technology — outlined here.)

What Will a President Biden Do?

With hope in sight, what will a President Biden do? Will he serve his donors and his policy prejudices, as he always has, or serve the people who, however reluctantly, elected him?

Here's one answer. If the former — if he gouges the patient public to enrich drug companies like Gilead — or if he gouges the government and pays "full price" for drugs the government charges patients nothing for — he should be made to feel an amount of pain equivalent to that which he inflicts.

And he should be made to feel this pain even during his so-called "honeymoon," even while he's still celebrating his victory over the monster he replaced, if that's what he deserves.

To be more blunt: If on Day One a President Joe Biden enacts policies that in any way hamper full and complete relief from the suffering this nation has already endured under Trump, he should be welcomed as a second-term Trump will almost certainly be welcomed.

A re-elected Trump will almost certainly be welcomed with a General Strike. A Biden who refuses to heal the public for free should see the same welcome.

When should the war against Biden's neoliberal policies begin? On the first betrayal.
  

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3 Comments:

At 1:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My first answer to that question would be “30 years ago”, but since I can’t control time: Today. Today would be good because Biden, should he replace Trump, will change nothing. Therefore, I say start the war right now against every policy he WILL uphold/enact if he gets into office. Oh, I know the press will put a “kinder, gentler” face on all the underlying problems that gave us Trump in the first place (hint: Obama was one of them), but Biden will only lead to a smarter, more charismatic fascist in 2024 if the country goes back to sleep and doesn’t take all of the members of the one-party-pretending-to-be-two-system to task for the absolute dumpster fire this country has become.

I don’t want 4 more years of Trump, but I don’t hold out any hope that Biden will improve anything. I hope I’m wrong: I fear I’m not.

 
At 2:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This particular war began in 1934 and has continued unabated since then. Sure is a shame that Bill Clinton surrendered to the enemy and joined their cause!

 
At 8:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who do you think lied to America voters in 1992 to win their support, 2:35?

Paul Tsongas tried to warn us about him, but Slick Willie conned the potted plants into supporting him. Didn't take much effort.

 

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