Step Right This Way

Slap a white coat on someone, give them some extra initials, and far too often they immediately start trying to tell everyone else what to do.  The curious exception to that is that physicians never really try to push back against the very government agents forever dedicated to bossing them around. 

Gasp, shock, how ever could I be so critical of my fellow doctors?  On the extreme end of the curve, there was one doctor (by training) who advocated nuclear holocaust.  But a lot of truly bad people with medical degrees seem far more reasonable, and are able to push their terrible prescriptions much farther along under the radar.  A lot of what I scold, joke, jab, and scream about on this site is for the physician to be first and foremost in the service of the individual, and to avoid anything that detracts from that whenever possible. 

Do you remember Zeke Emanuel, MD?  He’s an oncologist and bioethicist who caused a lot of stir with his 2014 essay, “Why I Hope to Die at 75.”  Clearly a well-educated, very connected political animal, Dr. Emanuel said some thoughtful, reasonable things, between which were inserted some ominous notions.  His essay was all the more concerning because of his stature as a public health policy guru, a media-promoted member of that professional class that has done such enormous damage over the past year.  Emanuel make economic and moral arguments, in complete denial that the very establishment of Medicare was and is founded on bribery, theft, and untenable Ponzi economics that get anyone named Madoff imprisoned.  Emanuel wants to be in charge.  That’s why he was Obama’s key guy in implementing the wildly successful Affordable Care Act – successful that is, if you were a bureaucrat, politician, or insurance executive.  Dr. Zeke knows better than you, how to order your life, and if you are deserving, from whom to steal your subsidies.  He wants to be in charge because he knows he should be. 

Now he is characterizing forged COVID vaccine cards as a “serious threat.”  Really?  To whom?  Those who have had the vaccine should be fine, as should those who contracted COVID-19 and recovered.  Yes, there are and will continue to be mutated variants, and there are reports of those who were re-infected (I personally know one, a very reliable ER nurse). But how are those who voluntarily or involuntarily gained any degree of immunity threatened by someone with a phony vaccine card?  But, but, but…what if they work in a hospital??  So?  They’ll put themselves at risk, not those who were already inoculated.  But, but, but…they’ll infect children!  No, they really won’t.  But, but, but…if they go to a ball game or concert, or indoor workplace, they’ll but that venue at legal risk for possibly making them a “super spreader.”  No, they won’t, not with the majority of the nation fast approaching some sort of immunized status.  But, but, but…we won’t know!!!   No, you won’t, and that’s really the point, isn’t it Dr Emanuel?  That’s why he “said that he thinks a database where people can have a scannable QR code to get into events or board airplanes ‘would have been the right way to go’ for the Biden administration. He explained this method would prevent a ‘spreader event’ from people with faked cards.” 

“I don’t think the privacy is really the concern. I think a lot of people … what they are really worried about is things like exploitation. Is it going to be commercialized? Is it going to fall into hands where people are going to use it for other reasons than the reasons that they certify? And I think … those are serious concerns. But so is forgery, and so is I’m going to an indoor spot, everyone says that they have been vaccinated but in fact haven’t and a spreading event is possible.”  Again, if YOU have been vaccinated, what possible threat could my little ol’ faked card be?  And how could anyone, in the context of Big Insurance abuses, the HIPPA Lie, and mandated EHR’s, seriously state that privacy isn’t a concern?

It should not get me damned as an anti-vaxxer (I’m not) to wonder why a medical dictator like Emanuel wants to join with the rest of the government and popular media in demanding that everyone conform.  Dr. Zeke wants a QR code on everyone’s (I hope) smart phone, as part of a national database.  Why do we need a national database for this, but not for other contagious, and more fatal diseases?  Disneyland just reopened after a 13-month nonsensical lockdown – will the middle-aged Gen X’ers need a QR code to prove they don’t have a heart condition before getting on a scary roller coaster?

This is about control for control’s sake, and this arrogant bully wants to co-opt medicine further into the open-ended service of the state without limits.  The Zeke Emanuel’s of the world want to tell us what health care to receive, how, and when.  These health commissars see people as raw materials to be cataloged and processed in pursuit of their good intentions, and fellow physicians as agents to be drafted to ensure that everyone stays in line as they cheerfully shuffle into the plant. 

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