In his insistence that we just didn’t do lockdown right, Emanuel sounds a bit like the old communists who frequent the coffee shops of the Upper West Side of Manhattan muttering about the real communism that never got its fair test. //

The Obama-era Emanuel had sermonized that the 75-and-overs should “stop getting any regular preventive tests, screenings, or interventions.” Even antibiotics would be out, as he wrote in his famous Atlantic article. “Death from these infections is quick and relatively painless. So, no to antibiotics.”

“I will die when whatever comes first takes me,” the then-57-year-old promised cheerfully.

Emanuel Is the ‘Rationer in Chief’ //Emanuel earned his reputation as “rationer in chief” when he wrote, “Other things being equal, we should always save five lives rather than one, but things are rarely equal.” Accordingly, a system he proposed “produces a priority curve on which individuals aged roughly 15 and 40 years get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated.”

Emanuel conceded that his plan appeared to discriminate against the elderly but explained: “Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination. … Treating 65-year-olds differently because of stereotypes or falsehoods would be ageist; treating them differently because they have already had more life-years is not.” //

Another reason the doctor seems so committed to the lockdown is that he’s now in the business via a newly formed company called COVID-19 Recovery Consulting, which helps “business reopen safely, responsibly, efficiently, and in compliance with the law.” In other words, it makes money helping people emerge from lockdowns — the same lockdowns Emanuel pushes.