Government's War on COVID Means More American Casualties: "... The intelligence from the FDA, CDC, and other authorities is as reliable as what we had in Afghanistan.".

• Author: Orient, Jane M.
• Position: POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

AS U.S. FORCES beat a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, defeated after 20 years by the primitive Taliban--who clung to their guns and their faith--America's invincibility as the "world's only superpower" might be disputed.

Pres. Joe Biden told Americans, when speaking about his gun-control agenda, that to move against our government one would need F-15s and perhaps nuclear weapons. The Taliban lack those, although they have acquired a treasure trove of advanced weapons left behind by our troops.

Against its citizens, the U.S. government might not deploy F-15s, nukes, bombers, or killer drones, but it has other means of compulsion: prison, ruinous fines, deprivation of licenses and permits, withholding of benefits on which one has become dependent, no-fly lists, or freezing one's financial assets.

In the "war" against COVTD-19, the government is showing its willingness to deploy all of these against anyone who might interfere with its strategy: lockdowns and mandatory warp-speed vaccines.

In war, civil rights get suspended. There is no freedom to express dissenting views; no freedom to work, travel, choose your medical treatment, or decline treatment to which you object; no right to habeas corpus or a speedy trial; no right to compensation for taking your property--and "refuseniks" even are being denied medical care.

In the war against COVID, the U.S. is counting on its magnificent pharmaceutical industry to deploy novel drugs and vaccines. Meanwhile, it is engaged in unilateral disarmament, trying to thwart the use of the primitive remedies being used in less affluent countries that for some reason have much lower COVID death rates than the U.S.

By March 2020, there were reports of successful treatment with chloroquine (CQ) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), derivatives of one of the oldest lifesaving remedies known, quinine from cinchona bark. The Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy was able to acquire 62,-000,000 doses of these drugs before both China and India shut off their exports to the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar directed the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to develop an Expanded Access Investigational New Drug (IND) authorization for HCQ. Instead, with the advice of lanet Woodcock, who now is acting FDA Commissioner, then-BARDA Director Rick Bright restricted access through an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for hospitalized patients only.

No EUA is needed for "off-label" use...