Big Pharma's obscenely-priced drugs developed w/tax dollars will continue to drain working people of income, savings, and – ultimately – their health until America recognizes healthcare as a right.

Molnupiravir is the new pill that's been all over the news recently because it can cut hospitalizations and deaths of unvaccinated Covid-infected people by as much as half and doesn't require folks to go to the hospital or an infusion center, like the monoclonal antibody remdesivir. Just take a pill every day for five days and you're good.

It was originally developed by Emory University to treat horses infected with Venezuelan equine encephalitis with a $10 million grant from the Department of Defense and $19 million from the National Institutes of Health. In other words, its invention was paid for with your tax dollars.

Emory University passed along the patent on molnupiravir to a small company, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which in turn passed it along to the pharmaceutical giant Merck. Manufacturing cost for molnupiravir, according to a report from researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, is around $17.74 for a 5-day course of treatment. Merck just signed a contract with the federal government to sell 1.7 million treatment courses for the government to distribute to infected people for … wait for it … $712.00 each.

Read more at HartmannReport.com.

-Thom

Friday's Daily Stack

Hour One: Progressive Town Hall
- Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA, 17th District)

Article: "David Shor Is Telling Democrats What They Don't Want to Hear" by Ezra Klein.

Article: "Sinema Opposes Drug Bills After Receiving $750K in Donations From Big Pharma" by Tom Williams.

Article: "History of United States debt ceiling" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Panama Papers" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Pandora Papers" by Wikipedia.

Article: "2021 California gubernatorial recall election" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Protesters greet Biden in Howell" by Colin Jackson.

Article: "Sturmabteilung" (Brownshirts).

Article: "The Sturmabteilung: Hitler's Unofficial Army Of Thugs" (brownshirts) by Gina Dimuro.

Article: "First Amendment to the United States Constitution"

Article: "ExxonMobil Lobbyist Tricked into Disclosing How Firm Fights Climate Initiatives" by Democracy Now!

Article: "Exxon Exposed: Greenpeace Tricks Top Lobbyists into Naming Senators They Use to Block Climate Action" by Democracy Now!

Article: "Exxon and BP called to testify on climate after 'troubling' new documents" (October 28) by Chris McGreal.

Article: "Full Interview – Powerful Christian Nationalists in Military See Trump as Vehicle for Authoritarian Religious State – Mikey Weinstein" by Paul Jay.

Article: "Col. (Ret.) Lawrence Wilkerson" by Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Article: "The Social Security Windfall Elimination and Government Pension Offset Provisions for Public Employees in the Health and Retirement Study" by Alan L. Gustman, Thomas L. Steinmeier, and Nahid Tabatabai.

Article: "The Social Security 2100 Act" by John Larson.

Article: "Kyrsten Sinema" by Open Secrets.

Article: "Joe Manchin" by Open Secrets.

Article: "California High-Speed Rail" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Line 3 Pipeline" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Enbridge Line 5" by Wikipedia.

Article: "9th Amendment"

Article: "Julius and Ethel Rosenberg" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Bannon tells Jan. 6 investigators he won't comply with their subpoena " by Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney.

Article: "Don McGahn" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Here's what happens if a congressional subpoena is ignored (and what it means for the January 6 committee)" by Paul LeBlanc.

Article: "The post office arrested Steve Bannon. Yes, the post office can arrest people." by Nicole Narea.

Article: "Susan McDougal Goes to Jail For Not Testifying on Clinton" by Stephen Labaton.

Article: "The Newest Big Pharma Scam Exposed" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Jeb Bush's Hypocrisy on W. Privatizing Social Security" by American Bridge PAC.

Article: "IP Explained: Four things to know about the Bayh-Dole Act" by Tom Wilbur.

Article: "Time to End the Medicare Advantage Scam" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "A Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibody for Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19" by ACTIV-3/TICO LY-CoV555 Study Group.

Article: "Estimated cost-based generic prices for molnupiravir for the treatment of COVID-19 infection" by Melissa J Barber and Dzintars Gotham.

Article: "Merck Sells Federally Financed Covid Pill to U.S. for 40 Times What It Costs to Make" by Sharon Lerner.

Twitter: "Rep. Kathleen Rice" (New York).

Twitter: "Rep. Kurt Schrader" (Oregon).

Twitter: "Rep. Scott Peters" (California).

Article: "The Enactment of Bayh–Dole" by Ashley J. Stevens.

Article: "It's time to end the Medicare Advantage scam" by Thom Hartmann.

Book: The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich by Thom Hartmann.

Book: "The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "United We Spend: For 20 Top-Selling Drugs Worldwide, Big Pharma Revenue from U.S. Sales Combined Exceeded Revenue from the Rest of the World" by Rick Claypool and Zain Rizvi.

Article: "Rights to Federally Funded Inventions and Licensing of Government Owned Inventions" by NIST.

Article: "New Details About Wilbur Ross' Business Point To Pattern Of Grifting" by Dan Alexander.

Article: "Changes To March-In Rights Under Bayh-Dole And More?" by Michael H. Brodowski, Kuwabo Mubyana.

Article: "March-In Rights Could Ensure Patient Access By Keeping Drug Prices In Check. They're Under Attack" by Peter S. Arno, Dana Neacsu, Kathryn Ardizzone.

Article: "Developing a direct acting, orally available antiviral agent in a pandemic: the evolution of molnupiravir as a potential treatment for COVID-19" by George R Painter, Michael G Natchus, Oren Cohen, Wendy Holman, and Wendy P Painter.

Article: "Merck Says It Has the First Antiviral Pill Found to Be Effective Against Covid" by Rebecca Robbins.

Article: "Rep. Kurt Schrader of Oregon helps kill drug pricing bill, endangering Biden infrastructure plan" by Alan Fram And Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar.

Article: "Paying Twice for the Same Drugs" by Peter Arno and Michael Davi.

Article: "AG Merrick Garland rebukes dubious ballot reviews 'based on disinformation' and says the DOJ will double its voting rights staff" by Grace Panetta.

Article: "Men who buy luxury cars are probably big jerks, study finds" by Lauren Steussy.

Article: "Understanding Our National Empathy Deficit" by Inequality.org.

Bible: "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil..." - 1 Timothy 6:9-10.

Quote: "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Lord Acton.

Article: "14th Amendment section 4, July 9, 1868 "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."

Article: "AG Merrick Garland Says Feds Will Review Election Audits, AZ GOP Fires Back" by Amanda Prestigiacomo.

Article: "Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years" by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Trump Racks Up $8 Trillion In National Debt Throughout Presidency" by Jake Dima.

Article: "The Budget and Deficit Under Clinton" by Brooks Jackson.

Article: "How Clinton Balanced the Budget" by Joe Conason.

Quote: "Today, we are ending welfare as we know it" - Bill Clinton.

Article: "Activists demand AT&T CEO to sever ties with far-right OAN network — or step down " by Jessica Corbett.

Article: "Report Reveals How AT&T Bankrolls Far-Right Disinformation Outlet One America News" by Jessica Corbett.

Article: "UltraViolet Says AT&T CEO John Stankey Should End Company's Relationship With Radical Right-Wing Media Outlet OAN, Stop Donations to Anti-Choice Politicians—or Step Down" by UltraViolet.

Article: "Democratic super PAC launches campaign blasting AT&T for donating to lawmakers who sponsored Texas abortion bill" by Brian Schwartz.

Article: "'This Is Not the End': Dire Threat to Abortion Rights Remains as Judge Blocks Texas Ban" by Jake Johnson.

Article: "How AT&T helped build far-right One America News " by John Shiffman.

Article: "Oklahoma State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister switches parties, enters 2022 gubernatorial race" by Andrew Millman.

Article: "Florida politicos who know Matt Gaetz tell us they're not buying the congressman's new 'happy husband' rebrand as the FBI's sex trafficking investigation continues" by Robin Bravender.

Article: "Mixed Jobs Report: Economy Adds Just 194,000 Jobs, but Unemployment Falls to 4.8 Percent" by Dean Baker.

Site: DoJ contact page.

Law: "18 U.S. Code § 610 - Coercion of political activity".

Law: "18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy". "If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both."

Article: "Mos maiorum" by Wikipedia.

Article: "Aristotle" by Wikipedia.

Book: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.

Book: Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny by Edward J. Watts.

Book: The Hidden History of American Oligarchy: Reclaiming Our Democracy from the Ruling Class by Thom Hartmann.

Article: "Franklin Graham: It's 'communism' for FBI to investigate violent threats against school board members" by David Badash.

Article: "The Amazon rainforest is losing 200,000 acres a day. Soon it will be too late" by Kim Heacox.

Article: "Jair Bolsonaro" (Brazil) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Viktor Orbán" (Hungary) by Wikipedia.

Article: "Internal review shows Trump's DHS concocted bogus intelligence blaming antifa for violence" by David Neiwert.

Article: "Human rights violations in Pinochet's Chile" by Wikipedia.

Article: "California oil spill fuels concern for Great Lakes" by WOOD.

Article: "A 13-inch crack in a California pipeline is believed to have caused the oil spill. But how it got there is a mystery." by Carter Evans.

Book: "Walking Your Blues Away: How to Heal the Mind and Create Emotional Well-Being" by Thom Hartmann

Coming up Monday on The Thom Hartmann Program, 12-3pm ET

I'll be debating Jennifer Stefano, Vice President & Chief Strategist - Commonwealth Foundation / Fellow - Independent Women's Forum: While Progressive Leaders Eat Cake, Their Constituents Suffer. What???

Plus, Tom Carpenter, Executive Director - Hanford Challenge about Hanford nuclear site

And, Conversations with Great Minds: Jen Senko, Director/Writer/Producer - The Brainwashing Of My Dad (documentary) / Media Activist

And, the best of the rest of the news along with your calls right here on...

The Thom Hartmann Program, Occupying The Media 3 hours a day 5 days a week for "we the people"

And don't forget...Democracy is NOT a spectator sport...it begins with you...

Conversations With Great Minds - The Storm Is Upon Us (w/ Mike Rothschild) Part Two

What Happens If We Don't Hold Trumpism Accountable? (w/ Ro Khanna)

The Two Strategies The GOP Will Use To Steal 2024 Election