COVID Cronyism
After crisscrossing the country in a bumbling attempt to overturn the election results, Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani contracted COVID-19.
As an older patient not in the greatest of health, Giuliani would be at the highest risk of dying from the virus. Yet thanks to his “celebrity” status, he was able to secure at least two of the same drugs the president himself received — even as hospitals across the country are forced to ration the drugs and make gut-wrenching decisions about what patients will be able to receive them. Giuliani is now proclaiming that the virus is a “treatable disease.”
Ben Carson and Chris Christie also managed to receive the scarce antibody treatment given to the president, thanks to their connections to Trump. Meanwhile, Colorado has been forced to use a lottery system to determine what patients will be able to receive the treatment. The treatment is in such short supply that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine is holding a session next week to help medical professionals craft standards for how to ration it.
Friends of the president receiving a scarce, top-of-the-line treatment solely because of their relationship to him is a clear sign that our healthcare system is broken. Someone’s wealth and friendships with powerful people shouldn’t determine what kind of treatment and care you receive. We need Medicare for All now.
