Now here is a conflict of interest, Secretary Azar is a former pharma big shot at Lilly Pharma. Azar just told Congress not all americans might be able to afford a vaccine. WTF!!!!! This is a public health emergency so the vaccine should be FREE or at least LOW COST for EVERYONE. My wife and I stood in line at the UI Union to get our FREE Swine Flu shot around 1976. Why is this pandemic becoming a money making orgy for this Administration???? The article says Lilly raised their prices under Azar's guidance while he made millions.
You would have to inoculate everyone or close to it to stamp this out and give herd immunity so an outbreak doesnt return.
https://theintercept.com/2020/02/29...of-interest-in-trumps-coronavirus-task-force/
CRONYISM AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE
![](https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2020/03/Sharon-Lerner_avatar_1583432868-1583432868..jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&h=60&w=60)
Sharon Lerner
February 29 2020, 7:07 a.m.
ALEX AZAR, the secretary of health and human services, admitted Wednesday that a vaccine for a new coronavirus might not be affordable for all Americans. “We can’t control that price,” Azar
told Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., during a congressional hearing about the novel strain, which has been spreading throughout the world and is widely expected to become a serious public health issue in the United States.
After a wave of criticism from Democrats, Azar
walked the comment back the next day, saying that he would ensure public access to a vaccine for Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, if one should be developed. But Azar, who served as the top lobbyist for Eli Lilly before becoming president of the drug company’s U.S. operations in 2012 and the secretary of health and human Services in 2018, knows of what he unthinkingly speaks.
Exorbitant drug pricing often leaves life-saving treatment out of reach for the poorest Americans. And to the extent that Azar and the other businessmen who make up the majority of the president’s coronavirus task force have any experience with pharmaceuticals, one of the
most profitable sectors of the economy, it’s been making money off the system that keeps them out of reach.