This undated electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health in February 2020 shows the virus that causes COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies may be a good treatment option for some people who test positive for the illness, according to state health officials. However, vaccination remains the best tool for limiting spread of COVID-19 and limiting hospitalizations. (NIAID-RML via AP, File)

US pandemic response has been a costly, divisive failure

With 4.2% of the world population, the U.S. has 19% of the total cases and 15% of the total deaths.

  • By Jeffrey G. Moebus
  • Tuesday, November 2, 2021 11:27am
  • Opinion

By Jeffrey G. Moebus

It is my belief that the decision about whether or not somebody needs to be vaccinated or wear a mask to go into a private business should be left entirely up to the owner of that private business, and not to politicians or government health care bureaucrats.

And nobody has the right to go wherever they want without being vaccinated or wearing a mask if that is required by the owner and operator of the business they want to go into. It is that simple.

The owners and managers of a business have — or should have — the same complete control over who can and cannot come into their restaurant, shop, office, or airplane ~ and what they can and cannot do once they are in there ~ as they have control over what people can and cannot do when they come into their homes.

One of the primary reasons America has failed so dismally in its dealing with The COVID event is that it is politicians and their “experts” who have been calling the shots. They have taken a health care situation and turned it into an opportunity to gain massive political — and thus economic — power and authority. And have disabled if not destroyed many sectors of the economy in the process. And greatly benefited a very few select other sectors, as well.

And it has failed miserably. With 4.2% of the total world population, the U.S. has 19% of the total cases and 15% of the total deaths. Until Brazil and India picked up the pace last year, the U.S. at one point had 25% of the total cases and 20% of the total deaths. Again: That is with just 4.2% of the total population of the planet.

And this has happened in the nation that spends the most per capita and the highest percentage of GDP on health care in the world. So just as the most expensive military on the planet hasn’t won a war in 76 years, our most expensive health care system and regime on the planet completely blew its first major challenge since it successfully defeated polio, smallpox, tuberculosis, whooping cough and other killers during the 20th century.

And the seeds of that failure were planted long before Trump took over the throne in the Oval Office. And he nurtured them into full bloom.

One wonders when the architects and engineers of this total failure wandering our corridors of power in Washington, D.C., and various state capitols will be held accountable. If it’s like all previous government failures, the answer is never.

• Jeffrey G. Moebus is a retired U.S. Army master sergeant. Moebus resides in Sitka. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

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