President Joe Biden’s inept leadership has spawned tragic tentacles as the supply chain shortages he inflamed threaten to kill cancer and COVID-19 patients who are unable to receive life-saving drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration currently lists 109 drugs in short supply nationally.
Three of the top five medications experiencing shortages are drugs used for chemotherapy, heart conditions and antibiotics, CBS News reported Thursday, citing the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
One of the scarce drugs is the anti-inflammatory tocilizumab, which is used by both cancer and COVID-19 patients. The scarcity has forced physicians to ration drugs, which means some patients are denied medication.
Dr. Patrick Jackson, an infectious-disease physician at the University of Virginia’s medical center, gives tocilizumab to chemotherapy patients while denying it to COVID patients because there simply isn’t enough to go around.
“It does mean that some patients are getting the drug that I would not ideally want to give them,” Jackson told CBS News.
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Brian Spoehlhof, an assistant pharmacy manager at the medical center, said the hospital has no choice but to ration drugs because of the shortage.
“For a lot of patients, it will feel very unfair,” he said. “If I had a solution, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
Spoehlhof said it’s impossible for him to restock the dwindling inventory because new supplies are not being delivered.
“By the time I come in, we have a new list of new medications that are short,” he told CBS News.
“What would happen if we run out of this, patients can’t get important chemotherapy — and without that chemotherapy they could die.”
The American Medical Association warned that the current drug shortage is an “urgent public health crisis” that “threatens patient care and safety,” CBS News reported.
Pharmacists across the country are also reporting shortages for popular drugs such as insulin, oxycodone and Adderall, which some people need to take every day.
Joyce McCroskey, a North Carolina mom, told WBTV-TV in Charlotte that her son had to wait four days for his anti-seizure medication because of the supply shortages.
The pandemic and resulting lockdowns have exacerbated a decade-long drug shortage that began in 2011 when Barack Obama was president.
However, the latest supply chain disruptions have been worsened by Biden’s policies, including an unreasonable vaccine mandate that has resulted in numerous workers quitting or being fired.
President Joe Biden’s recently announced sweeping vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans is resulting in some truckers across the country quitting their jobs.https://t.co/C5rBngU4UJ
— abc27 News (@abc27News) September 30, 2021
This workforce exodus because of the vaccine mandate comes on top of a labor shortage caused by overly generous government handouts during the pandemic.
In addition, numerous hospital workers have quit or were fired because of their opposition to vaccine mandates. This means that in addition to drug shortages, there’s also a frightening labor shortage in the health care sector — in the middle of a pandemic.
More than 150 employees of a Houston hospital system who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine have been fired or resigned, the hospital says. A federal judge earlier threw out the lawsuit filed by employees over the requirement. https://t.co/g8ltBKqYKK
— The Associated Press (@AP) June 22, 2021
400 Henry Ford Health employees quit over COVID-19 vaccine mandate; 92% fully vaccinated https://t.co/utxs3bF2zF
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) October 5, 2021
Thus, Biden’s vaccine mandate has further stymied a lagging economy and intensified a supply chain disruption that’s preventing cancer and COVID patients from getting the medication they need to survive.
Meanwhile, vaccine mandates are also escalating crime waves in Democrat-run cities as police officers quit or are fired en masse for opposing the forced injections.
NOW – Seattle Fire and Police, discharged for noncompliance with the vaccine mandate, turn in their boots at the city hall.pic.twitter.com/O8ogfdaYTd
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 19, 2021
But Biden apparently doesn’t mind more lawlessness across America, since he said last week that unvaccinated cops and other first responders should be fired.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.