LISTEN, SUG, DON’T FORGET TO SAY YOUR PRAYERS: US splashes $290m on anti-radiation drugs after Putin ups nuclear threat.
The US government has purchased a significant supply of radiation-injury drugs as the Russian president threatened the use of nuclear weapons.
A $290 million procurement of the drug Nplate, to treat acute radiation syndrome (ARS), was announced by the US Health and Human Services (HSS).
The government confirmed it was the first purchase of the drug, manufactured by the California pharmaceutical company Amgen.
The purchase comes after Vladimir Putin renewed his threat of nuclear war. In a speech last month he vowed to use “all the means at our disposal” to protect Russia and its people. “This is not a bluff,” he said.
The US government said the procurement of Nplate was not in response to the war in Ukraine.
An HSS spokesman told The Telegraph: “This is part of our ongoing work for preparedness and radiological security. It has not been accelerated by the situation in Ukraine.”
Flashback: The Unexpected Return of Duck and Cover.
With a 2022 twist! Don’t forget to wear your mask when you’re in the fallout shelter:
Here’s a link to the referenced document if you want to see it for yourself.
UPDATE: Biden Warns of Nuclear ‘Armageddon.’
President Joe Biden issued a warning about a potential nuclear “Armageddon” at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday evening, saying, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
“I don’t think there is any such a thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” added the president.
It has been widely speculated that Russia could employ tactical nuclear weapons in an effort to turn the tide in its war of aggression against Ukraine. Russian forces have been pushed back toward their own border in recent days, causing observers to wonder whether Russian president Vladimir Putin may, in desperation, turn to weapons of mass destruction.
At the fundraiser, Biden called Putin “a guy I know fairly well,” and said Putin is “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons” as a solution to his military’s underperformance.
Flashback: Biden called Trump ‘Putin’s puppy.’ The president-elect may put Moscow on a tighter leash.
—NBC News, December 22nd, 2020.
Still though, look at the upside!
(Updated and bumped; classical allusion in headline.)