FDAReview.org

President Biden seems comfortable using the executive branch’s power to push his agenda. As of February 2, 2021 (less than two weeks after taking office), he has signed 25 executive orders on issues ranging from environmental policy, racial equality, Covid-19 relief, and reinstating elements of the Affordable Care Act.

While passing an unprecedented amount of executive orders in record time, President Biden also placed a moratorium on all regulations enacted by the Trump administration set to go into effect this year. While freezing laws passed under previous administrations is common, preventing a regulation designed to provide less expensive life-saving drugs has generated widespread criticism.

In 1996, a vial of Humalog (roughly a month’s supply) cost patients about $25 per vial. By 2017, the anti-diabetes medication cost nearly $275. Insulin prices have only increased since then. A Business Insider article estimates that from 2017 to 2019 the average diabetic spent $300 to $400 for a month’s supply of insulin.

To afford their vital medication and make financial ends meet, many people with diabetes ration their insulin. One STAT article finds that 25 percent of diabetics rationed their insulin at least once a year due to financial difficulties. When rationing isn’t enough and times are desperate, some people turn to black markets.

In October, large portions of the United States began experiencing rapid increases in new COVID-19 cases. Many European countries have experienced a similar surge in cases, even after being devastated by severe COVID-19 outbreaks earlier this year.

Fearing the arrival of a second wave, several states reenacted various lockdown measures to curb spreading disease. Many European nations followed suit.

In a surprising memo released last month by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, federal agencies under the umbrella of his department are now prohibited from passing additional regulations on food, medicines, medical devices, and vaccines without Azar’s approval. As stated in the memo, “Any prior delegation of rulemaking authority, including the authority to sign or issue a rule or a proposed rule, is rescinded.”

Azar’s orders curtail the regulation-issuing authority of 8 agencies and 11 operating divisions. Among these agencies is the Food and Drug Administration, whose regulatory influence encompasses an estimated 20 percent of all consumer products as of 2008.

As Covid-19 began to spread through the United States in February, many feared hospitals would become overwhelmed with infected patients. To meet the demands a global pandemic places on our healthcare system, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began hiring private contractors to build field hospitals to treat patients when hospitals hit capacity.

The Corps effort was an incredible feat of engineering, sometimes erecting large-scale facilities within a few weeks. But building these emergency hospitals across the country came at a hefty price of over $660 million.

In the nearly eight months since Covid-19 arrived in the United States, the country has undergone extensive lockdowns, trying economic hardship, and prolonged social isolation.

Despite these sacrifices to battle the pandemic, the U.S. continues to lead the world in total confirmed Covid-19 cases and Covid-19 fatalities. As of September 9, the Coronavirus Resource Center at John Hopkins University estimates that nearly 6.4 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 with about 190,500 fatalities. With many universities, schools, and state governments trying to reopen, additional outbreaks are likely on the horizon.

Well before Covid-19 emerged, medical researchers warned that the rapid increase of Alzheimer’s disease in older populations would lead to the next “pandemic.”

In many respects, they were right. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, nearly 10 percent of the U.S. population over 65 years old suffers from that progressively destructive brain disorder. The same organization estimates that the percentage afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease will more than double by the year 2050.

Famed Economist Thomas Sowell has long remarked that “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.” He might need to add Millennials to this paltry list.

A recent Bloomberg opinion column by Andreas Kluth argues that the economic hardships stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic are “turning Millennials into socialists.” Arguing that younger generations “keep getting shafted by our country’s existing policies,” Kluth fears Millennials have inadvertently fallen “prey to political snake oil such as rent controls or wealth taxes” and are calling for more government control into our lives.

It has been over three years since Donald Trump became the 45^th President of the United States of America. During his first run for the Oval Office, he vowed to take on drug companies and lower the cost of prescription drugs. With less than one-hundred days until the 2020 presidential election, he has yet to keep his promise.

Hoping to make up for lost time, President Trump recently signed four executive orders to lower the prices for many important drugs. He announced last month, “I’m signing four sweeping executive orders that will lead to a massive reduction in drugs costs” and “completely restore the prescription drug market.”