Policy for Current and Future Pandemics

    It has been said that the U.S. was unprepared for the Coronavirus Pandemic because our government's cupboards were barren.  America should learn from that mistake now, as well as for several years into the future when Covid will no longer be a problem.

But, there are other pandemic threats beyond the Coronavirus--one specifically that is already taking a significant biological toll.  Antimicrobial Resistance, or AMR, is slowly growing into a Covid sized pandemic.  It is estimated that currently, about 30,000 Americans die from AMR each year.  And, if not stopped, 10,000,000 people globally may die in the year 2050.

What AMR entails is the mutation of biological entities that anti-biotics neutralize, such as bacteria, that render the anti-biotics unable to do their function.  Since so many medical procedures depend on effective anti-biotics, this poses a major problem.

Recently, about 20 Big Pharma and Biotech Companies have contracted a total of about 1 billion dollars to research and develop new anti-biotics.  It is unfortunate that I have to point out that if the FDA or other government organizations get in the way of this AMR Action Fund they will be sentencing tens of thousands of Americans to death.

Let's learn from Covid, develop a Capitalist economic policy, not destroy the future of medicine by denying companies profit, and use a reasonable amount of resources to fill the medicine cabinet so the cupboards will not be barren next time around.

Paul Wharton

Special thanks to Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) for inventing the fuel of my mind