Ya, I didn’t think you have been curious enough to ask those questions. You wouldn’t have liked the answers.
{SiGH} Sure. I'll play along.
My BIL's situation was somewhat different. His company already made a drug that had proven effective in that particular SARS scare, so the Bush administration was working with them to secure a huge stockpile at a lowballed price. But it was an opportunity to work closely with the government and regulatory agencies on various pandemic scenarios. That SARS episode went away without inducing a panic. We always made fun of my brother-in-law because he kept warning us that a devastating global pandemic was inevitable. But each time the threat petered out, and we just thought he was paranoid.
So yeah, as a high level pharmaceutical exec, he's keenly aware of the red tape and hoops the FDA makes private industry jump through. Which is why he's also appreciative that the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization allowed COVID-19 vaccines to get fast-tracked. But nobody at that level assumes an Obama or Bush administration wouldn't have pushed for the same allowance. It's what you do in a pubic health crisis.
As you may recall, Donald Trump was also lobbying these companies to announce a vaccine before the election to serve his political purposes, but the drug companies and FDA erred on the side of safety and efficacy. Of course he accused them of an anti-Trump agenda for doing so.
Everybody at the FDA and BIg Pharma understood the history of hydroxychloroquine in helping treat lupus and malaria, and as a potential aid in certain COVID cases. But they also thought Trump was totally irresponsible in his public shilling of s#!t he knew nothing about. No respected professional considered hydroxy a cure, much less bleach.
Respected professionals were also in agreement that dismantling the pandemic response team was a bad idea. So was ignoring the pandemic playbook Obama had provided. It's a matter of public record that Trump has been non-stop in undermining COVID concerns and sensible directives that could have saved thousands of live. Respected medical professionals as well as most sentient mammals considerTrump's flouting of science, facts, and evidence to be an embarrassment to America.
My BIL retired with a nice parachute, having left the company better than he found it. Don't know how many people he laid off in his tenure. He's still an industry consultant. Not sure how any of that makes your point.
Again, our vindictive and pathologically insecure President is currently staging a coup, and he's counting on the willfully ill-informed to join him. I will personally and sincerely thank him for Project Warp Speed when he's safely in jail.
