Liberal commentator Bari Weiss made headlines last weekend by prosecuting the actions of U.S. public health entities and government for their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that future generations will consider them to have committed a "moral crime."
Her words may have inflamed the Fauci-fanatics in American society, but coming on the heels of the CDC's stunning admission that natural immunity was six times more effective during the Delta variant wave – despite the fact that public health officials shamed those who were suggesting as much at the time – there are more citizens than ever who are now choosing COVID realism over alarmism.
What remains to be seen is how well our country, particularly younger generations, learn from what has happened these last two years. By that I don't necessarily mean how our society handles the next pandemic or public health crisis, but more how people will come to view the role of government in directing, manipulating, and controlling our healthcare.
In September of 2020, Pew Research reported that 63% of Americans agreed that government has the responsibility to provide and manage healthcare for its citizens. That was the highest percentage in history and a clear majority. Argue with the semantics and squabble over the details of how much "control" Americans would be comfortable with, but note that there existed a significant majority in our country that supported some form of single-payer, that is "government," healthcare.
Has it dawned on most of those government healthcare supporters that they are inviting the same entity that has bungled COVID diagnosis, prevention, and treatment so badly to do the same with the rest of our health systems? Has it dawned on some of them? Any?
Given unlimited resources, the government has bungled the adequate allocation of tests, banned effective treatments for political reasons, produced and promulgated inaccurate information regarding the efficacy of mitigation techniques, and has gone so far as to attempt a blanket mandate to compel citizens into receiving chemical injections to participate in civil society.
And it's that latter part that has always been the most compelling argument against any statist approach to healthcare. If the government is in charge of paying for the procedures, therapies, and treatments necessary to keep a person alive, they are also in charge of determining who is worth the cost of those procedures, therapies, and treatments.
Years ago, when I would argue with people about this concerning reality, and point to actual examples of governments with socialized medicine rationing care, I would ask whether bureaucrats should get to decide whether the quality of life of your mother, brother, or child is worth the amount of money a potentially life-saving procedure would cost. What if you are a smoker? A diabetic? A person over 90 with no immediate family?
And every time I would hear the same answers: "That's not going to happen – what we're arguing is that healthcare is a right and government has the responsibility to pay for it for everyone, not just those who meet some criteria established by the bureaucracy."
Yet in the hearing discussing the U.S. government's federal vaccine mandate, Justice Elena Kagan explained herself: "The government is paying for the medical services so they have the right to dictate details of those services."
And how does that end?
Remember, Canada is often cited by proponents of single-payer healthcare as the gold standard.
"It isn't socialized medicine that led to rationed, poor care like was seen in Cuba or Venezuela! It's like Canada!"
That's exactly the concern.
And let's not think that the same voices proposing a Canadian-style system here would oppose that very same thing:
How far does that logic go? Does government get to keep tabs on all your health choices and then deny you specific treatments because of your willingness to take what it deems to be "unwise risks" with your health? If breathing treatments can be denied to someone with COVID because they weren't vaccinated, can heart attack victims be denied treatment because they kept eating at McDonalds?
Here's to hoping the government's COVID mismanagement has convinced enough sane people we don't ever want to find out.
