Amid the pain of a pandemic, the world awaits vaccines and treatments, currently being pursued by a long list of medical researchers. Yet in a recent column in The New York Times, Bret Stephens ruefully observes that “one lesson from this pandemic is how dependent we are for our survival on an innovative and robust pharmaceutical industry. Maybe we should do more as a country to cultivate it than tear it down.”
Could it be that some people really wish to tear down the pharmaceutical industry? It seems difficult to believe. In support of his case he does quote one prominent U.S. Senator and presidential candidate, who I suppose would not express such views unless counting on their popularity.
If true, it suggests the desire of some to punish rather than reward the very people on whose lives they — the punishers — depend. Which makes them rather like the tragic Countryman of Aesop’s fable, who misguidedly kills, rather than treasures, the goose that laid the golden eggs.
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