Free Markets and American Initiative to the Rescue
With Covid-19 making its inevitable arrival on our shores, we can be grateful for the American exceptionalism that will help us meet the threat.
The very strong economy that we’ve been enjoying is about to take a tumble. How far it will fall is highly uncertain with business, after business, retrenching or closing for the duration. We’re in uncharted waters.
But the free-market foundation on which our economy is based has already proved its worth.
While Covid-19 was still confined largely to China, the federal Centers for Disease Control hurried to develop a test that would identify those with the infection. On February 26th, the CDC told state and local officials that its “testing capacity is more than adequate to meet current testing demands.”
Unfortunately, one of the test’s components was contaminated and public health laboratories around the country were unable to use it. As a result, the virus got the jump on health officials.
While the tests wouldn’t have prevented Covid-19, our response was delayed and our ability to track its spread was compromised. Hospital and commercial lab operators said the CDC didn’t reach out for help until it was too late, failing to recognize the huge role the private sector would have to play.
Finger-pointing among various government entities followed as expected. Government being government, don’t expect to see the root cause identified nor any consequences to follow.
Had we been enjoying the progressive left’s Medicare-for-All today, we would know far less about Covid-19’s spread in this country. The CDC’s corrected test is only now reaching public health labs and the public. Fortunately, we had alternatives to government-provided health services.
Roche Pharma, one of the pharmaceutical companies that progressives love to hate, is coming to the rescue. An “emergency team” of Roche scientists began developing a new test in January as soon as China shared the Coronavirus genetic sequence. The company began its work without government direction and with its own money.
Roche, whose tag line is “Doing now what patients need next,” had shipped over 400,000 test kits as of early this past week.
Even better, Roche’s tests can be conducted much faster than the CDC’s manual laboratory tests. Roche machines, located in 100 labs around the country, provide results in three and a half hours and can run many tests in parallel. Its most advanced machine can process over 4,000 samples every 24 hours.
Full disclosure: I do not own Roche stock. I highlight this story to point out that free-market competition in the pharmaceutical industry is literally a lifesaver in this instance and others.
Likewise, I have been impressed with how quickly most Americans are taking epidemiologists’ advice to protect themselves. Many, including my wife and me, are choosing to stay at home to the maximum extent possible. While that’s common sense and self-preservation, it’s also the best way to spread out and eventually limit Covid-19’s impact on us all.
Media stories have complained that in the absence of direction from Washington, states and local governments have been “forced” to pick up the baton and take action. Huh? This is exactly what we should expect to happen in our federal system: one size doesn’t fit all.
Sitting around waiting for direction from on high is exactly why the coronavirus jumped from a local matter in Wuhan, China, to an international pandemic. The liberal mindset expects direction from Washington in all aspects of our lives.
I’ll take individual initiative and responsive state and local government over a federal nanny state any day.
Faced with the pandemic, the advice from all corners is consistent and clear: Don’t panic, be smart. Understand the risks, take the necessary precautions.
And think again about whether you want to live in a country that depends entirely on a single federal agency, no matter how well-intentioned, to get things right the first time.
For many many months, the progressive socialist democrats tried to impeach President Donald J. Trump. They wasted countless time and resources that could have been directe to dealing with this virus early on. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Shoomer, Maxine Waters, Adam Scniff, AOC and many others obstructed and essentially paralyzed the government of the USA.
President Donald J. Trump has proven that strong leadership rather than endless hatred from the radical lefties is the best way to serve and protect the hard working tax paying Middle Class in the USA. The commie left has hatred, criticism, anarchy and the left stream media propaganda machine. We need to look our Free Market roots and support the President now that the commies have weaponized the Wuhan virus against Mr. Trump.
May God help the radical left understand that we are all in this together. This Wuhan virus will pass and our country will triumph. Destroying the premier Free Market Economy on earth will NOT stop this virus. The Wuhan virus is a bump on the road of our civilization and will be managed and defeated. Communism can only be defeated with bullets. Ask Stalin, Mao, Hitler and over 150 million deaths due to various forms of socialist commie democrats in the last century. Wake Up Americans.
Is it any wonder we are so divided as a country? Talk about propaganda, your post is laden with it.
You really need to have facts before spouting off about this current crisis we are in or the many that came before it. The day this man was elected into the most powerful office in the country was a very dark day. Of course I’m not a racist and I don’t call people names because I’m a grown up. Stopped doing that when I was 5. If you believe the impeachment trial stopped Trump from handling this crisis in January, like it should have been, you are delusional. Instead he called it a Democrat hoax at one of his pep rally’s. Nothing stops this man from doing or not doing whatever he damn well pleases. He is the great American embarrassment, a grown man speaking about women as if they are here for his personal benefit. He disrespects women because most of them are smarter than him. So he calls names, uses Twitter like he invented it. I’m holding my tongue here because I’m trying to keep calm. I needed to respond to your comments, because you sound like you drank the Kool aid. You have all the same insulting language that Republicans on the hill and FOX News uses. Try to do some research for yourself and look into how he disbanded the pandemic task force 2 years ago. Look into his businesses and find evidence of him not paying his vendors the money they were owed for work completed. Look into his adulterous affairs with many women while married. I could go on and on. But please, in the future maybe think about how using inflammatory language will get you negative responses. And karma is real.