by Michael DePaoli
SANDERS’ XENOPHOBIA
Non-Democrat challenger for the 2016 Democratic nomination Bernie Sanders (who blew the election for the Democrats by dividing the party and calling Hillary Clinton unqualified) (Ed. Note: Or, you know, maybe if Debbie Wasserman-Schulz didn’t manipulate the results of the primaries….potato, po-tah-to…) is at it, again. This time his target is the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi.
In an op-ed piece for The New York Times, Sanders makes the following attack against Sanofi: “Now his [Trump’s] administration, through the Army, is on the brink of making a bad deal, giving a French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi, the exclusive license to patents and thus a monopoly to sell a vaccine against the Zika virus.” Specifically, Sanders demanded that Trump “…make only the best deals on behalf of the American people…” (New York Times, March 10, 2017).
Thus, Sanders is up in arms with the Army deal because Sanofi is French and because Sanofi will make a profit.
If Sanders had hopped onto the Sanofi website, he could have discovered that Sanofi has a division called Sanofi Pasteur, which is the largest producer of vaccines in the World, which has its USA headquarters in Swiftwater, Pennsylvania, and which employs three thousand people in the USA.
Also, if Sanders had taken the time to research the Zika virus, he would have found that it is part of the Flaviviridae family of viruses. Another disease in this same family of viruses is the Yellow Fever virus. And, can you guess which company is one of the largest producers of the Yellow Fever vaccine? Yes, that would be Sanofi Pasteur. Indeed, Dengue Fever and Japanese Encephalitis are also in the Flaviviridae family of viruses, and Sanofi Pasteur also makes vaccines for them.
Thus, if the Army wanted to produce a Zika vaccine as quickly as possible to save as many children as possible from developing catastrophic brain damage, then Sanofi Pasteur would be the obvious choice to help stop the nasty Zika virus.
Sanders (like Trump) does not take the time to explain the background facts. He just attacks.
TRANSFERRED AGGRESSION
(Ed. Note: This should have been the title of the last item, no?)
The trouble here is not just about vaccines. Bernie Sanders spews his socialist liberal aggression at a foreign company, but the aggression does not just stop at Sanofi. Today we target a French pharmaceutical company. Tomorrow we target Syrian refugees. The next day we build a wall on the Mexican border. Once you start going down the nationalistic, xenophobic, anti-capitalist road, there is no end to whom your next targets might be.
Like I argued before, Sanders’ primary victories in Michigan and Wisconsin conditioned the people to accept the radical and impossible Trump promises of more jobs, less taxes, and paying off the national debt. Likewise, attacking a French company because it is French
(despite the fact that such company employs three thousand people here in the USA) will condition the people to accept more and more xenophobia.
THE AMERICAN WAY
The great American experiment has been a success (so far) because throughout the American Revolution and the formation of the Constitution there were consistent ideological principles that guided our Founding Fathers. See, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, by Bernard Bailyn. The trouble with Sanders and Trump and their ilk is that they just rally up the crowds by spewing hate.
In order for liberalism to survive (the essence of the USA has always been liberalism), we must have measured and rational inquiries, and we must educate as many people as possible about truth and justice and fairness and the American ideology of equal protection and due process.
If Sanders might want to argue that Sanofi Pasteur was not the best choice to partner with the Army to create a Zika vaccine, and if Sanders might want to argue that Sanofi Pasteur did not earn the right to own the patents on its work, then let Sanders prove it with facts. Was there any American company that would have been a better choice to partner with the Army? If so, which company? Would this other company have been able to make the vaccine? Would this other company have been willing to invest its money on the project if it knew that no patent would be granted and if it knew that the USA would impose an anti-capitalist limit to the profits?
Bernie, please! You have caused so much damage to our county. Just stop. You wanted to give away free college education and free healthcare, but you do not want to allow a company to reap profits from its efforts.
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