The World Changes Under Our Feet

Last Sunday, I was shooting at a match in Oklahoma.  Un-connected to the digital world, I was enjoying a weekend of shooting, friends, and relaxation.  Covid-19 was a mere distraction.  We drove home in the dark, got into the driveway about 1:00 a.m., and fell into bed.  We had learned that the local school board had cancelled classes, so we didn't set an alarm clock for Monday.

On Monday, I started playing catch-up.  As, it tuns out, the entire medical community is playing catch-up.  In the intervening week, the world has changed and has had major repercussions for the American public.

As I try to educate myself, I keep seeing a disturbing trend.  The FDA is in the way.  Very smart, conscientious, certified researchers are ttrying to comue up with a vaccine ad treatment options and this disturbing thread keeps cropping up. 

You need to have FDA approval to do a trial.

Or this:

 Once we get the approval, we can begin recruiting people for donating plasma and for the clinical trials

These researchers in respected institutions certainly can't be seeking to harm the public, and they certainly understand what is necessary to conduct a clinical trial.  Yet, they need approval from a bureaucrat to conduct research during a national emergency?  That's utter bullshit.

In a national medical emergency, where the rights and privileges of all Americans are curtailed, the bureaucrats need to get out o the way.  Even the bureaucrats at the FDA.  Even if a trusted institution has to make a ten-minute phone call to get approval, that ten minutes is a regulatory burden that might delay a treatment or vaccine.  Every moment that America is on lock-down is a moment that should not be wasted on bullshit.