Editorial -- Joe Biden Playing Doctor

Not only is Joe Biden no more competent than Donald Trump, he is playing doctor and making things worse. We were told that if we elected him over Donald Trump, he would be a lot more competent than Mr. Trump. But not only have more people died from COVID-19 under Mr. Biden, it has not gone away. After hitting a plateau at 100,000 for the last month, it has started to surge again, hitting 138,000 cases a day. Hospitalizations and deaths have started to go up again too.

Now, the President is committing some of the same missteps that his predecessor was. There are currently 1,470 monkeypox cases in the country. There are 1 million doses of a vaccine named Jynneos available. However, they are sitting in a storage facility in Denmark because some bureaucrat somewhere won’t sign off on approval to ship it here.

There is a drug, Tecovirimat, that can treat monkeypox. The CDC announced in June that it will allow the use of TPOXX to treat monkeypox. However, it turns that that physicians have to fill out 100 pages of paperwork for each patient they want to prescribe it to.

Another case in point. Recently, in Ruan vs. United States, the Supreme Court overturned a decision that would have sent board certified pain management specialist Xiulu Ruan to prison for 21 years for not conforming to government standards regarding the prescription of opioids. He was charged under the Controlled Substances Act. The defendant was not allowed to argue in court that he acted in good faith, which led the Supreme Court to unanimously overturn the conviction. In order for the government to convict a doctor, they have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a doctor knowingly or intentionally acted in an unauthorized manner.

One can agree or disagree with the merits of the decision. The National Institutes of Health says that roughly 21 to 29% of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them. Some transition to illegal drugs. 

But the Biden Administration can’t substitute its judgement for that of the courts. Two days after the Supreme Court ruling, the Justice Department organized an opioid strike force in New England targeting doctors who law enforcement officers decide are overprescribing paid medications. 

We were told when Mr. Biden got elected that he would restore respect for the rule of law that his predecessor flouted. That means respecting court decisions one disagrees with. The last thing doctors need is to have to look over their shoulder in fear that the cops might break into their office. And then Mr. Biden wonders why nobody likes him.