End Games

The pandemic is over.  Sure, a few hot spots remain, and SARS-CoV-2 continues to smolder as variants of the original virus, but this is our post-pandemic world.  COVID will never be eradicated; there will always be endemic disease where there are human communities.  But the worldwide pandemic, the catalyst for the “emergency”, has passed.  This emergency created an alliance between power hungry authoritarians and money hungry profiteers, resulting in a loss of individual freedom and massive wealth redistribution.  

This alliance has not ended with the COVID emergency.  Politicians and the industrialists will continue to conspire to secure the profits and power usurped during the past two years, and they will do this by playing games.  Get ready for the end games.

Many of these games will be played with emergency use authorizations (EUAs).   Medical devices and therapies developed during the pandemic continue to be available under EUA for as long as HHS Secretary determines that there is an emergency warranting use of unapproved products.  On April 12, 2022, Xavier Becerra renewed the declaration, extending the emergency into July.  But does anyone think that a true emergency still exists?  As COVID restrictions are lifted, the only reason for the continued “emergency” is to prolong the availability of these profitable medical devices and therapies. 

Manufacturers would rather operate under EUA than under FDA license because of relaxed manufacturing standards and minimal product liability, but the beneficiaries of the emergency know this state cannot not last forever.  They intend to ride the EUAs until the end, then jump over to FDA approval at the last possible moment so their profits continue after the lifting of the emergency declaration.

These end games are baked into the pre-pandemic language governing EUAs.  The Secretary of HHS is required to give adequate warning before terminating an emergency so that manufacturers may dispose of their outstanding inventory.  Last month, FDA issued draft language outlining a transition plan from EUA to approval for medical devices, including PPE equipment and diagnostic tests.  Expect similar plans for drugs and vaccines.  

Pfizer and Moderna have already pocketed approvals for COMIRNATY and SPIKEVAX without bringing these products to market.  Once the emergency ends, these vaccines will magically materialize.  But before the state of emergency is lifted, vaccines will be approved for all age groups, as will perpetual and unlimited boosters. 

The same will be true for other expensive, patentable COVID drugs such as Evusheld and bebtelovimab, drugs designed for pre-exposure and early treatment and now only available by EUA. Before the emergency is lifted, there will be a push for FDA approval by the same forces that conspire to prevent access to Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin which have been used for the same purposes.  The existence of these unpatentable drugs should have precluded EUAs for the profitable ones. 

Another game is being played with tests.  Early in the pandemic, the CDC quietly changed the definition of cases to mean a positive diagnostic test regardless of symptoms.  This change drives up the case rate numerator without changing the denominator.  These inflated test results will be used to prolong the emergency declaration for as long as possible, stretching the advantageous EUA business environment.  With few exceptions, SARS-CoV-2 tests are available by EUA, but these will be quickly approved before emergency is lifted, since direct viral tests are useful to perpetuate fear in a sensitized population. 

By the way, do not expect antibody tests to be approved any time soon.  Antibody tests should be the gold standard for assessing immune status—better than vaccination history, better than disease history.  But these tests are still shockingly primitive.  No interpretative standards have been developed, and few careful serologic studies have been undertaken.  And no wonder.  The potential clarity of antibody tests benefit neither the profiteers nor the authoritarians.

And what do the authoritarians get by playing these games with the profiteers?  Power.  In exchange for their friction-free money machines, businesses have facilitated the authoritarian’s assault on civil liberties.  Businesses use a variety of techniques to steal liberties from individuals.  Some of these liberties are surrendered freely by appeals to conscience and duty.  Other liberties are taken by coercion.  But when force is required, businesses provide the muscle.  Hospitals fire employees that refuse to comply with the CMS vaccine mandate.  Airlines enforced the CDC transit mask mandate, and may do so again.  Neither mandate is supported by evidence.

The current powerful alliance of big business and big government fulfills the criteria of fascism.  Americans have been here before.  To overturn this instance of fascism, we need coalitions of citizens committed to truth and individual liberty.  Our greatest hope is rekindling the American Spirit.