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Vaccine bribes are a depressing sign of the times

BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ Glendale Star Columnist

There have been many phases in our country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic — denial, incompetence, surging effectiveness — but this latest development I did not see coming.

We’re now down to bribing people to do the right thing and get vaccinated.

The madness started in early May in Ohio, where Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced his state’s Vax-aMillion lottery, which awards a cool million bucks and full-ride college scholarships to vaccinated registrants each week.

The fi rst winner? Abbigail Bugenske, 22, a Cincinnati resident who plans to donate some of her million bucks to charity, then invest the rest — after splurging on a new ride. “I think buying a used car is still in my future,” Bugenske said at a press conference.

Clearly, a free million dollars doesn’t go as far as it used to once upon a time.

Other states and businesses quickly started playing Santa in Ohio’s wake. There’s “Colorado Comeback Cash,” Maryland “Vax to Win,” a million-dollar lottery in Oregon and $1.5 million prizes in California, where they’re offering “$50,000 Fridays” to 30 lucky, randomly selected winners.

In West Virginia, they’re giving away cash plus two new custom pickup trucks and 10 custom hunting rifl es and shotguns. In New York, they’re giving away free Lottery scratcher tickets for a shot at $5 million and free tickets to Mets and Yankees baseball games.

There’s a thought: Given how abysmal the last-place Diamondbacks are playing, maybe newly vaccinated children can pitch the seventh inning during the upcoming games against the Angels and Giants.

Random fourth graders would be much more entertaining than the D-backs’ current bullpen.

In fairness, here in Arizona we haven’t commenced government giveaways yet, though the private sector has gotten into the act. Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 entitles you to a free doughnut at Krispy Kreme, a free sweepstakes entry at CVS pharmacies, and 10% off groceries if you get vaccinated at a Safeway, Fry’s or Albertson’s.

Then there’s Anheuser-Busch, which has teamed up with the White House to offer free beer to 200,000 Americans — provided the nation reaches President Biden’s goal of 70% of U.S. adults with at least one shot in the arm by Independence Day.

“That’s right. Get a shot and have a beer,” Biden announced at a June 2 press conference. “Free beer for everyone 21 years or over to celebrate the independence from the virus.”

We still have a ways to go: Currently, only 63% of adults have been vaccinated. That means we’re about 20 million adults short of the herd immunity goal.

Will bribery get us there, when mass education campaigns, social responsibility and social shaming seem to have failed? My guess is not quite.

This is America after all, where you can never underestimate the amount of selfi shness, fear and lunacy that prevails in a fraction of the population.

It’s a depressing thought, though perhaps less depressing than if the opposite proves to be true and naked bribes actually work.

What would it say about us as a people if millions of us couldn’t be bothered to get vaccinated purely to take care of ourselves, our children, our families, co-workers and neighbors, but we would get off the couch for free swag and a longshot chance to win some cash?

Such naked greed is enough to make me admire the anti-vaxxers a bit.

If you’re willing to deny decades of science for your personal beliefs — no matter how ridiculous society might judge them to be — that’s one thing. But if you’re so damn lazy that you need a free Bud and a doughnut to join the herd?

Maybe the herd is actually better off without you.

Hospice, dementia and chronic illness care Military veteran tributes Grief support Volunteer opportunities Call 24/7 to speak with a nurse As a not-for-profit, we turn no one away

David Leibowitz has called the Valley home since 1995. Contact david@leibowitzsolo.com.

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Memorial Day weekend reminded us to pay tribute

BY JUDY BLUHM Glendale Star Columnist

Did you enjoy this past Memorial Day weekend? It signifies the remembrance of those men and women who served in the military and did not return home so that we could have the remarkable freedoms that we enjoy. Flags flying, parades, memorials, picnics, family gatherings, three-day weekends, bagpipes playing … what better way to start off the summer? That’s right, I said “bagpipes playing,” because nothing quite evokes such deep emotion and dignity like listening to a group of pipers play at a Memorial Day ceremony.

So why the bagpipes at American funerals? In the 1800s, Irish immigrants were often employed in dangerous jobs such as police officers and firemen. At the funeral of a fallen comrade, the bagpipes were always played, and this became the traditional ritual for a hero’s final goodbye. During the 1970s, the Scots Guards (one of the Foot Guards’ regiments of the British Army) was on tour in the USA and played “Amazing Grace,” since making it the most requested tune to be played at me-

morials by pipers.

The Memorial Day weekend is too important to not go out and pay tribute to those who serve their country and communities. This holiday represents the larger portrait of Americana — the reminder that freedom is never free and that as far as sacrifices go, some gave all.

I recall going to the Veterans Cemetery as a child, standing before a sea of tiny flags that waved briskly in the breeze, each standing at attention at the base of a flat gravestone. I would run around and try to read as many names as I could, wondering how they died, figuring out how old the soldier was, reading the words scrawled on the headstones. Fresh cut flowers or round wreaths, looking like sad little life preservers, were placed lovingly on numerous graves, making the cemetery come alive with color.

Then there would be the lady who could be seen sitting in a lawn chair on her son’s grave, or the child who would bring hand-drawn pictures to a gravesite, bravely saluting a father he might never have known. Parents and friends gather, children run or skip on grassy knolls, bagpipers and a drummer in the distance playing a solemn hymn. The stark contrast of the hope of a spring day, with flowers blooming, birds singing and flags flying, set against the backdrop of a broken heart and a piper playing is the poignant snapshot of the day.

Memorial Day weekend reminds us to remember. It causes us to pause out of our busy schedule of barbecuing with friends and family, having a leisurely three-day getaway, to recall those fallen comrades and all that they stood for — and left behind. Some people today are not having a barbecue. They are going to cemeteries across this great nation to pay respect to those we lost.

Summer is officially here — ushered in by a very memorable weekend. It helps us put everything in perspective, allows us to ponder the bigger world issues at hand, makes us rethink our choices and appreciate all that we take for granted. God bless America.

Judy Bluhm is a writer and a local Realtor. Have a story or a comment? Email her at judy@judybluhm.com.

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Ignoring heroism, redefining extremism

BY J.D. HAYWORTH Glendale Star Columnist

No wonder President Biden, Vice President Harris and their spouses dined at a french restaurant on May 31. It was only fitting, as the nation’s “No. 2” was fresh from a political faux pas not seen since Marie Antionette’s alleged infamous comment, “Let them eat cake.”

As America prepared to remember its fallen, the veep tweeted a vacuous wish: “Enjoy the long weekend.” The backlash nearly fricasseed her Twitter feed.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, asked the obvious: “Care to mention WHY we’re having the long weekend, Kamala?” A Gold Star Mother posted a picture, worth far more than a thousand words. It was the image of a young man, killed in action at age 19. “Always and forever in my heart, my American Hero Son,” she wrote. No stinging rebuke of Harris was necessary; the photo is poignant and its implied criticism potent.

But this is more than just an episode of internet insensitivity; it is, instead, the latest portent of policy changes at the Pentagon. The Biden White House wants uniformity among those who wear the uniform — not only in line formation, but also in political orientation.

It is certainly true that the Jan. 6 march on the Capitol included mob action, but to accept the media narrative that all the blame must rest at the feet of Trump supporters is as ludicrous as Joe Biden’s assessment that the tragic, sorry episode was “the worst assault on our democracy since the Civil War,” conveniently forgetting Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 7, 1941.

That’s why it’s worth remembering the complete political pronouncement of a more recent vintage, uttered by then-incoming Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel in 2008: “You nev-

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er let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

With an “amen chorus” amidst the unholy alliance of a partisan press, Silicon Valley tech titans and “woke” Wall Street fat cats — not to mention communist China’s “new best friends” in Hollywood — it’s simple to see where the left hopes to lead us: to that place where political dissent and conservative opinion can be redefined as “domestic terrorism.”

That’s why new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, only two weeks after being sworn in, ordered a full military “stand down.” Previously, such actions have been limited to specific branches of the service or geographic theaters of operation and have been prompted by technical failures of equipment or poor performance by personnel.

This latest “stand down” was quite different. Not only did it involve all our military — everywhere our forces are based — it also featured a broad mandate: “address extremism.” What is extremism? Why, whatever the commander-in-chief says it is!

Despite the cognitive challenges Joe Biden faces, a half-century of pursuing and procuring political power has imbued him with an instinct to consolidate that power at all costs — especially at the expense of the opposition. What better way to short-circuit our political process and constitutional freedoms than by proclaiming the “loyal opposition” disloyal?

Equally dangerous is the temptation to keep those in military service from enjoying the very freedoms they fight and die to defend. Clearly, command authority and discipline within the ranks cannot be discarded — but neither can individual liberties.

Sadly, that appears to be the case with the sacking of Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier. He was relieved of his command in mid-May for comments he made on the podcast “Information Operation,” where he promoted his self-published book, in which he denounced Marxism and “critical race theory.”

But Lt. Col. Lohmeier’s “firing offense” may have come with this evaluation of recent changes to military life: “What you see happening in the U.S. military at the moment is that if you’re a conservative, then you’re lumped into a group of people who are labelled extremists, if you’re willing to voice your views. And if you’re aligned with the left, then it’s okay to be an activist online because no one’s gonna hold you accountable.”

So Matthew Lohmeier appears headed for an early retirement due to an accurate assessment of what’s happened in our military, while Kamala Harris remains a heartbeat away from the presidency for a cold-hearted dismissal of Memorial Day as part of a “long weekend.”

The French have an expression for it: “C’est la vie.”

Don’t let lawmakers take away our medicine

BY BARBARA KAVANAGH Glendale Star Guest Writer

My husband has lived with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer, for three decades. As his caregiver, I know how vital it is to have access to the latest medicine.

That’s why I’m concerned about a bill recently reintroduced in the U.S. House. Proponents of the proposed law, HR 3, present it as a solution to high prescription drug costs. Like similar bills, it uses a concept known as “foreign reference pricing,” in which the United States would set prices based on how much drugs cost in other countries.

The lawmakers behind this bill no doubt have good intentions. Too many families struggle to afford medicine. But a clear-eyed look at foreign reference pricing shows what it would really do: restrict access to new treatments and stunt research into future cures. Ultimately, the more than 30,000 Arizonans diagnosed with cancer every year could pay the price.

When my husband was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a month before our wedding, there were few treatments available. Fortunately, we found one that worked, but it was a frightening time.

Today, thanks to steady medical advancements, multiple myeloma patients have access to a wide range of treatments, and as a result, long-term survival rates are much better. Since 1991, the total cancer death rate in the United States has fallen by more than 30%.

I’m afraid, though, that a foreign reference pricing bill would arrest this steady progress. It comes down to how government price controls affect drug access and innovation.

HR 3 would impose price limits on a broad range of medicines. A drug could not be sold in the United States for more than 120% of its average price in Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Australia and Canada.

These six “reference” countries all have government-run health care systems in which federal authorities set prescription drug prices below market value.

Acting as bulk buyers for entire populations, federal authorities in those countries have to make harsh decisions about how to control costs. Drugs that do the most good for the greatest number are typically authorized. But if a medicine works wonders for just a few or doesn’t improve quality of life by a bureaucratic definition of “enough,” the government may simply choose not to make it available.

As a result of factors like these, patients are left without access to potentially lifesaving treatments. Consider that, of all new cancer medications introduced globally between 2011 and 2019, patients in the United States

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could access a full 96% of them, according to health analytics firm IQVIA. In Great Britain, by contrast, only 71% of new drugs were available. In Canada, patients could access just 59%, while in Australia the figure was less than half.

And, as so many cancer patients and their loved ones know, time is of the essence when treating disease. So, it’s disturbing that even when new drugs do make it to price-control countries, it takes longer. In the United States, it takes between zero and two months from initial launch for a new cancer medicine to be introduced in the United States. But in Germany, the average wait is 11 months, and in Great Britain 12. Patients in Japan and Australia wait close to two years.

If we tie our drug prices to these other nations, I worry that we will adopt drug scarcity and delays as well.

The long-term effect on future patients would also be grave. On average, drug companies spend about $3 billion to develop a single new medicine. Artificially low prices in a vast market like the United States would make it much harder to earn a return on such large investments. Research into new treatments — the cures of the future — could stall. In fact, if a foreign reference bill like HR 3 is enacted, 61 fewer new drugs would come to market in the next 10 years, according to the health consultancy Vital Transformations.

We all want to make sure medicine is available and affordable to those who need it. But HR 3 would just put patients like my husband at risk. Soon, Arizona’s congressional representatives will have to vote on foreign reference pricing. I’m counting on them to do the right thing.

Barbara Kavanagh of Glendale is founder, president and chief executive officer of the Arizona Myeloma Network.