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In the down-is-up, grievance-fueled, gaslighting world that is Donald Trump, a new idea has been trotted out that is beyond bananas. His latest Hail Mary has the potential to risk the health of every citizen … and all for a few votes.
Trump wants Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to help him “straighten out our health” and “go wild on health” in his second term. Yes, the same RFK Jr. whose own family members have distanced themselves from him and endorsed the Democratic nominee.
Kennedy abandoned his flagging third-party presidential run in August, after reportedly offering his support to whichever candidate promised him the best job in their administration. Harris wouldn’t meet with him. Her opponent did, and soon after, Kennedy threw his support Trump’s way.
In the final days of what is expected to be a very close election, Trump must believe that tossing Kennedy a bone and trading on his famous name will help him. I doubt that it will, but more importantly, the prospect of Kennedy having anything to do with our nation’s health care is disturbing to say the least.
Kennedy told supports on a Zoom call yesterday that Trump has “promised” him “control of the public health agencies, which are HHS [Health and Human Services] and its sub-agencies, CDC [Centers for Disease Control], FDA [Food and Drug Administration], NIH [National Institutes of Health], and a few others,” like the Department of Agriculture. He would be “deeply involved in helping to choose the people” heading those agencies. That last part was likely added because Kennedy could have a hard time with Senate confirmation, should he get appointed to the Cabinet.
Let’s take a look at the would-be health czar of a second Trump administration. Kennedy is an unabashed anti-vaccine activist who started a nonprofit to campaign against things like child immunization and water fluoridation. He is a conspiracy theorist who promotes disproven ideas about the effects of pharmaceuticals. His dangerous beliefs include suspicions about inoculation for Covid, flu, chickenpox, mumps, and polio, among others. He is not only against them — he wants vaccines taken off the market so that no one has access to them.
Coupling an anti-vaccine zealot with Trump’s anti-science bent could be a deadly mix. Four years after a global pandemic killed 1.2 million Americans, Trump wants to install someone who will wreck the very agencies tasked with coordinating the country’s pandemic response, including vaccines that saved millions of lives.
Trump has also said he would “not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate.” Though he claims he is talking only about Covid vaccines, I choose to hedge my bets. Currently every state and Washington, D.C., requires that school children be immunized. Imagine an America where millions of children came to school without being vaccinated against whooping cough, tetanus, or measles. All can be deadly.
Having Kennedy run our country’s health care is like putting Hannibal Lecter in charge of the food supply.
Reaction to the news has come from all corners.
“Putting an anti-abortion conspiracy theorist in charge of our public health agencies says everything you need to know about how Donald Trump would govern,” Vice President Harris wrote on social media.
At a recent public health conference, Trump’s former surgeon general, Jerome Adams, said, “If RFK has a significant influence on the next administration, that could further erode people’s willingness to get up to date with recommended vaccines, and I am worried about the impact that could have on our nation’s health, on our nation’s economy, on our global security.”
Even Trump acknowledges that Kennedy has some crazy ideas. “We’re gonna let him go wild for a little while, then I’m gonna have to maybe rein him back, because he’s got some pretty wild ideas, but most of them are really good,” Trump said at the Al Smith dinner two weeks ago.
The Kennedy news comes on the heels of another round of promises by Republicans to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. This week, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson responded to a voter who asked if there would be “no Obamacare?” Johnson agreed, “no Obamacare.” When asked to clarify his response, Johnson said he would pursue “massive reform.” Trump tried and failed several times to repeal the ACA. During his only debate with Harris, he said he had “concepts of a plan” for replacing it. All this for a program that has allowed 40 million Americans to get health insurance. The national uninsured rate is at its lowest levels ever, and 62% of the country has a favorable view of the ACA.
This assault on the American health care systems at the 11th hour of the campaign is curious but should not be ignored. The very health of our citizens and our democracy is at stake.
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Dan
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