Two physicians who sold out on COVID-19

Have they no shame?

Dr. Steven Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, has twice granted “emergency approval” of drugs that had not been properly tested for the treatment of COVID-19. Now, he is poised to grant “emergency approval” of one or more vaccines for COVID-19 that have not been properly tested.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control, sharply reduced standards for testing of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19. Knowing that 40% of people who have the virus are presymptomatic or asymptomatic, he said they need not be tested.

It is clear that these men have caved to pressure from would-be Emperor Donald J. Trump and his cabal. They have allowed an apparently psychopathic chief executive with no knowledge of medicine (or of almost anything, truth be known) to corrupt world-renowned health agencies in order to advance his prospects for reelection. Their actions will (not might) result in unchecked spread of a pandemic that has already killed more than 180,000 Americans and will (not might) result in the needless deaths of tens of thousands more.

These two “physicians” took the same Hippocratic Oath as those heroes who risk — and the thousands who have lost — their lives fighting the results of COVID-19. It may be time for Dr. Hahn’s and Dr. Redfield’s respective licensing boards to examine their fitness to call themselves physicians. ADELE E. ZIMMERMANN

Embudo