On Friday, Fox News ran an article that shared China’s threats against drug exports to the United States. The threats come amidst the coronavirus pandemic and the need for various life saving drugs to combat it. According to the article, China is responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of U.S. antibiotics, 70 percent of acetaminophen and about 40 percent of heparin production. This is an alarmingly high amount of US drugs, but does not account for all of their production.
Some of the concerns with medication dependence were presented during the “trade war” with China. NBCNews described how many medications for chronic illness were manufactured in China in an article last fall. Concerns about potential shortages were given with coronavirus. The FDA announced late in February the first drug shortage as a result of production shut down in China.
It’s a realistic concern that China could cause issues with drug supplies to the United States. This kind of threat is exactly why President Trump ran on the premise that we should make things in America. He came under a lot of criticism when he suggested that we move drug manufacturing back to the United States in 2017.
Democrats have been so focused on drug pricing in their comments, but they forgot that the real threat comes when you cannot access the medications at all. Trump was 2-3 years ahead of Democrats on this, but you will hear that in the main stream media. His America first message was exactly where we needed to be focused.
So now we are in the midst of a situation where there is public panic due to media over-hype. Yes, coronavirus, or COVID-19, is a big deal. Yes, you need to protect yourself and take appropriate precautions. Can we cancel life? Absolutely not. Common sense is desperately needed in this situation.
Let’s be honest, the COVID-19 virus appears to be more contagious than the flu. While the number of cases has not made it to that point, it could easily surpass the seasonal flu in the coming months. It has been reported that members of Congress were advised that most Americans will be exposed to this at some point. This is concerning, but you have to look at the numbers.
According to the latest numbers at the time of this writing, there are nearly 100,000 cases of COVID-19, but nearly 65,000 have recovered. The death rate continues to hover around 3% of cases worldwide, but that may change as the virus is treated in more developed nations. It will most likely still stay above the flu death rate of significantly less than 1%. So it must be given consideration and thought, but not mass chaos and hype.
A real concern is our dependence on China for medications we need. This is something that Trump called for in 2017, but he was ignored and made fun of by Democrats. Now, we are in a situation that the things he described may become a reality. Where are the Democrats? They’re too busy finding ways to blame Trump for coronavirus and the response to it.
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