August 19, 2020 Issue, Page 3 of 8

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Page 4 The Elk City News, Elk City, Oklahoma Wednesday, August 19, 2020 Sign of the times: Religion’s Opinion Page “ElkCituNews declining role in political identity Serving Western Oklahoma since 1901 Gutting patent By Michael McGough, ment is recent, he embraced the reputation of a Catho- tiates what they already be- Los Angeles Times Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Su- lic politician - even among lieve. Joe Biden, who if elected preme Court decision legal- Catholic voters - by accus- That Biden has survived protections won’t would be the nation’s second izing abortion, as early as ing him or her of unfaith- critiques of his Catholi- Roman Catholic president, 2007. In that year, he said fulness to church teachings. cism is a reflection of ma- was bashed by a Catholic the ruling was “the only According to a 2019 Pew jor changes in the American cure COVID-19 bishop last week, and a lot means by which, in this het- survey, 56% of U.S. Catho- of Catholics either yawned or came to Biden’s defense. erogeneous society of ours, we can reach some general lics believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases. church. But this episode is a reminder of a broader phenomenon: the decline By Adam Mossoff That says something about accommodation on what is Mark J. Rozell, dean of in religion as a proxy for To ensure that coronavirus vaccines and treatments are changes both in the Ameri- a religiously charged and a George Mason University’s political identity. Religious “available at a price affordable to all people,” Congress- can church and in the declin- publicly charged debate.” Schar School of Policy and affiliation doesn’t seem to woman Jan Schakowsky and several other House Demo- ing role of religion as a po- Oh, and John Kerry, the Government and an expert crats recently proposed a radical solution to the coronavirus litical identity. Democrats’ nominee in on Catholic voting patterns, generate the same desire pandemic - commandeer any lifesaving, yet-to-be-created Biden, who emphasizes 2004, was also a Catholic said in an interview that for representation as race or vaccine and allow the government to set “reasonable” pric- his Catholic upbringing, has supporter of legal abortion. there was “no evidence that gender. Biden’s Catholicism es also moved to a pro-choice Was Tobin counting him? cues from church leaders in hasn’t occasioned anything Although this may sound like it would benefit people, it position over the years, most Tobin was upbraided on any way influence Catholic like the commentary that has would be a disaster for patients, Intellectual property pro- recently abandoning his sup- Twitter for his knock at voters” in the United States. focused on Kamala Harris’ tections aren’t a barrier to care. Just the opposite. They’re responsible for the most revolutionary medical innovations port for the Hyde Amend- Biden, including by Catho- Catholic voters, like other gender and ethnicity. in human history. And they’re our best hope of ending this ment, which bans federal lics who pointed out that it’s Americans, are “very inde- The Almanac of American pandemic. funding for abortion in most not up to Tobin to unchurch pendent-minded,” he said. Politics still lists religious Patents enable companies to sell their drugs and licenses circumstances. Presumably the former vice president. Rozell noted that in 2004 affiliation in its profiles of to other companies to make those drugs without copycat that was what motivated The prominent Jesuit writer Catholic voters preferred members of Congress. (Har- competition for a limited time. Without such protections, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of James Martin tweeted: “Mr. Methodist George W. Bush ris is described as a Baptist there’d be little incentive for private companies and inves- Providence, Rhode Island, Biden is a baptized Catholic. to their fellow Catholic Ker- on Page 163 of the 2020 tors to dedicate hundreds of billions of dollars to the scien- to tweet this on Aug. 11: Thus, he is a Catholic.” ty. He added that “this is not edition.) But that’s arguably tists at the cutting edge of biomedical research. “Biden-Harris. First time This isn’t the first time 1960,” when Catholic voters The Founding Fathers understood that intellectual prop- a hangover from the days in awhile that the Democrat- Biden’s Catholic bona fides rallied around John F. Ken- erty rights were essential to the growth and success of the when religious affiliation country, empowering Congress in the Constitution to se- ic ticket hasn’t had a Catho- have been challenged by a nedy. was an important part of a lic on it. Sad.” What about a cultural af- cure this “exclusive right” to inventors. They placed the Catholic cleric. Last year, politician’s brand. A lot of government’s power to protect patents on par with creat- Put aside the illogic of the a priest in South Carolina finity between a Catholic attack: Tobin seems to sug- Americans feel an affinity ing federal courts, declaring war, and creating an army and said that he had denied the politician and Catholic vot- sacrament of Holy Com- ers? Rozell suggested that with candidates who “look navy. gest that Biden isn’t a Catho- Our early leaders proved prescient. Nearly all of the lic now, but was in 2008 and munion to the former vice Catholic identity might have like me.” Not so much for medical breakthroughs in the past century would have been 2012 when he ran for vice president because of Biden’s only a marginal effect on those who “pray like me.” impossible without reliable and effective IP rights. These president on a ticket with support for legal abortion. such voters. They are more Michael McGough is the include recent developments, such as the antiretroviral Barack Obama. But long gone are the days likely to focus on the issues, Los Angeles Times’ senior therapies that have brought America’s HIV/AIDS death Although Biden’s change when a priest or a bishop agreeing with a bishop’s editorial writer, based in rate down by 80 percent, and the cancer therapies that have of heart on the Hyde Amend- could meaningfully damage pronouncement if it substan- Washington, D.C. cut mortality rates by nearly a quarter since the early 1990s. After more than a century of continuous breakthroughs, it’s easy to take this medical progress for granted. But we shouldn’t forget that, before IP rights and the free market brought us modern medicine, life was “nasty, brutish and This healthcare ‘watchdog’ is no friend of coronavirus patients short.” People routinely died from diseases that are easily treat- able today. Less than a hundred years ago, President Calvin Coolidge’s 16-year-old son died in 1924 after injuring his toe playing tennis on the White House lawn. Without an- By Paul C. Langley country trillions of dollars. ing remdesivir - which was tered for months, and bil- tibiotics, Calvin Jr. developed a common blood infection Finally, there’s a bit of Spurring the creation of vac- originally a failed Ebola lions of people are waiting that killed him in a week. good news in the fight cines and treatments ought treatment - the company has for COVID-19 treatments ‘We can’t let misinformed, misguided politicians bring us against COVID-19. to be our top priority. Jaw- already recouped the full or vaccines. The idea that a back to those days. The FDA issued an “emer- boning drug companies over cost of research and devel- medicine that helps reopen America has had the strongest IP protections in the world gency use authorization” the cost of therapies isn’t opment. As such, it could the economy and get mil- - and as a result, we’re far more innovative than other na- for remdesivir, an anti-viral helpful. sell the drug at cost, for only lions of people back to work tions. The United States accounts for about 5 percent of the drug that could help corona- Of course, it’s imperative $10 for a 10-day treatment. world’s population and a quarter of its economic output, virus patients recover faster. that treatments and vaccines This claim, frankly, makes is only worth $10 is ludi- but invents two-thirds of all new drugs. The medicine isn’t a silver are affordable. But ICER’s no sense. Remdesivir hasn’t crous. Despite this ingenuity, some public officials still view patents as barriers to healthcare access - particularly during bullet, but it’s the first thera- report is little more than a generated any real revenue ICER has made it abun- py that has shown success in publicity stunt, considering thus far - after all, it failed in dantly clear that it’s willing public health emergencies like COVID-19. to put a price on patients’ clinical trials. that remdesivir’s creator, Ebola clinical trials. Others urge the federal government to “march in” and Gilead Sciences, has already Yet one self-styled health- lives. Unfortunately, this If ICER’s misguided no- seize drug patents under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. They misunderstand what this law does. care watchdog seems deter- pledged to donate its entire tion - namely, that insurers price is as always a nonsense Bayh-Dole only allows the government to seize patents mined to rain on the parade. existing supply of the drug. should only pay drug com- creation. It’s revealing that in extremely rare situations, such as when a company is un- The Institute for Clinical and Gilead also entered into panies enough to recoup a. self-appointed advocate willing or unable to sell or license a drug in the healthcare Economic Review, better agreements with five generic their immediate manufactur- for patients is grandstanding market. That’s not the case right now with COVID-19. In known as ICER, routinely manufacturers, which will ing costs - goes mainstream, about the price of the only fact, drug companies are racing to turn lab discoveries into analyzes the “value” that expand the supply of the it would discourage pharma- effective coronavirus treat- real-world treatments. Around 80 clinical trials are already new drugs provide. The or- treatment to more than 125 ceutical manufacturers from ment - a treatment that the underway for coronavirus drugs and vaccines. ganization suggests that in- countries around the world. researching new treatments manufacturer has already If Congress guts intellectual property protections, bio- surers should pay as little as And Gilead isn’t alone - for COVID-19 and many promised to give away for tech firms will hesitate to invest additional money in future $10, and at most $4,460, per nearly every company work- other diseases. free. research and development projects. There’s no surer way 10-day course of treatment. ing on coronavirus vaccines That calculation doesn’t to limit patients’ access to health care than to undermine ICER is in no position to actand treatments has promised merely neglect the massive Paul C. Langley, Ph.D. is TP rights - and thus ensure that new medicines are never as an arbiter of drug spend- these drugs will be widely upfront costs of drug de- a professor at the University invented at all. ing - especially at a time available, and in many cases, velopment. It also ignores of Minnesota, director of Adam Mossoff is a patent law expert at Antonin Scalia like this. COVID-19 has al- completely free for patients. the economic benefits that Maimon Research, and re- Law School, George Mason University, and a Senior Fel- ready claimed over 160,000 new treatments provide. Our ICER states that since the search director of the Insti- low at the Hudson Institute. American lives and cost our manufacturer is repurpos- global economy was shut- tute for Patient Access. States have an obligation to offer parents school choice during closures By Kay C. James, The The fact of the matter is, the country protest school schools that “compete” with our kids? That just doesn’t made based on the science Heritage Foundation taxpayer dollars spent on reopenings. Unions want the public schools are shut pass the straight-face test. and a school district's ability Across America, as public public education are meant schools to remain closed down and more taxpayer Of course, defunding to consistently follow health schools are choosing to not for the education of stu- until their lists of demands funding is allocated to hous- the police is not a neces- and safety protocols, not on reopen or to only provide a dents. As such, those dol- are met, yet many of their ing for California’s home- sary condition for safely the political agendas of spe- partial in-person experience lars should actually fund less, among other demands. reopening schools. Neither cial-interest groups. conditions have absolutely this fall, families are strug- students, not empty school nothing to do with ensuring The stipulations are part are many of the other de- School choice addresses gling to figure out how to buildings. the safety of children and of what the union calls its mands. Instead, some teach- many of the issues we’re fac- ensure their kids get a good If schools don’t reopen teachers during the pandem- “groundbreaking research ers’ unions are shamelessly ing during the coronavirus education and don’t fall fur- this fall, states have an ob- ic. Demands include such paper” that outlines neces- using schoolchildren and and provides better educa- ther behind. ligation to ensure children things as forcing landlords sary conditions for safely the reopening of schools tional opportunities for ev- The good news is, there have access to other edu- and banks to cancel rent and reopening schools. as bargaining chips to push ery student - not just during has never been another cational opportunities. On mortgage payments for in- Speaking about its list of their unrelated social policy the pandemic, but for gen- time in America so ripe for average, taxpayers pay dividuals, keeping private demands, UTLA’s _ presi- agenda. True school choice erations of students to come. school choice. Wouldn’t it $14,000 a year per child for schools closed and blocking dent claimed, “We all want would mean that parents and As fall quickly approaches, make sense if parents could K-12 public education. Al- vouchers for school choice. to physically open schools students wouldn’t have to be states must work toward take a portion of the money lowing parents the option of One egregious example is and be back with our stu- held hostage by political de- making school choice a re- that state and local govern- taking a portion of that mon- in Los Angeles, where the dents, but lives hang in the mands. ality so students don’t fall ments spend to educate their ey and using it elsewhere is LA teachers’ union, United balance. Safety has to be the In addition, any plan to even further behind. Parents children and use it to seek one significant step toward Teachers Los Angeles, wants priority.” reopen schools needs to and students need options, alternatives - like private fulfilling that obligation. schools to remain closed un- be centered on teacher and and they need them now. Sure it does. or parochial school, online School choice seems like til the federal government If safety is truly the prior- student safety and provid- Kay C. James is president education, home schooling, an especially critical option passes “Medicare for All,” ity, how does defunding the ing children a quality edu- of The Heritage Foundation co-ops or other options? as teachers’ unions across police are defunded, charter police ensure the safety of cation. Decisions must be (heritage.org).