Howard's Political Commentary

Bypass the Bureaucracy The key to getting our society and economy back to normal is to bypass bureaucrats and politicians standing in the way and stop enabling those who want to keep the country shut down. First, President Trump should use his emergency powers to make hydroxycloroquine an over the counter (OTC) drug instead of available by prescription only. Many countries already do this. Since the drug is fairly harmless when used according to directions – probably less dangerous than aspirin – it should already have been designated as OTC. This order will bypass the FDA’s policies as well as state medical and pharmacy boards. This must be accompanied by assuring a stable, plentiful supply from Indian companies which are the largest producers of this drug. Building some domestic production capacity is something to consider as well under the War Production Act. Wide availability of hydroxycloroquine will allow people to use it to protect against and treat COVID-19. This sho...

The medical industry is highly regulated by government at both the Federal and state level. The justification of the extensive regulations is to protect the public from abuse at the hands of bad doctors, pharmacists, and other medical providers as well as from drug companies selling dangerous drugs. There are cases when health industry regulators help people, prevent suffering, and save lives. However, there are also cases when people are hurt , forced to endure unnecessary suffering, and needlessly die because of regulators. Balancing the costs and benefits can sometimes be challenging, but government regulation almost certainly creates more costs in economic, human suffering, and human life. The primary reason for this is that regulators tend to be more risk averse than the average medical consumer (patient) and want to avoid blame for people being hurt by bad drugs or bad medical practitioners. They are also more interested in building bureaucratic empires than delivering value...