The attack on Americas health

The Trump era and ideology are not only an attack of the foundations of our republic, but a very real attack on our health. We are going backward. This is true not only regarding access to health care and paying for it, but our actual health.

I found this article very sobering.

The COVID-19 pandemic was supposed to serve as a wake-up call, making the value of scientific expertise, medical research, and public-health preparedness impossible to ignore, let alone deny. But the opposite has happened in the US, and Donald Trump and his supporters bear almost all of the blame.

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And then there is the COVID-19 vaccine – a true triumph of modern science. Building on mRNA breakthroughs, the vaccines were developed in under a year, and they averted an estimated 14-20 million deaths in their first 12 months. This achievement was made possible, in part, by the work of immigrants: Hungarian-born Katalin Karikó, Lebanese-born Noubar Afeyan, and French-born Stéphane Bancel at Moderna, and Indian-born Nita Patel, who led Novavax’s vaccine team. 

Taken together, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives over the last half-century, and they continue to save an estimated 4-5 million lives per year. And this is to say nothing of the myriad other life-saving advances in diagnostics and treatment that have emerged in the 124 years since McKinley was shot. 

Trump is now threatening to unravel this progress. His administration has slashed foreign aid and balked at international cooperation in the name of “America First.” And now he has fired the director of the Centers for Disease Control because she refused to endorse Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies. But by enabling the resurgence of diseases that have been brought under control, and hampering progress in tackling others, Trump is indirectly jeopardizing Americans’ health. 

Trump is also mounting direct attacks on their health at home. His administration has all but declared war on universities, hospitals, public-health agencies, and other non-profit science-based institutions. Funding for vital medical research – including grants from the National Institutes of Health – has been sharply reduced or eliminated. 

Trump’s war on universities dovetails with his war on immigrants. As students return to university campuses to begin the new academic year, many desks are empty, because the Trump administration has blocked their would-be occupants from entering the US. Trump is also seeking to make it harder for foreigners to remain in the US after receiving their degrees, despite the long list of scientific breakthroughs to which immigrants have contributed. This is not a brain drain, but a brain squeeze. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was supposed to serve as a wake-up call, making the value of scientific expertise, medical research, and public-health preparedness impossible to ignore, let alone deny. But the opposite has happened in the US: trust in science, government, and public institutions has plumbed new lows, owing partly to the MAGA movement’s promotion of health misinformation, conspiracy theories, and mistrust of “the establishment.” 

Now, vaccine skepticism is surging, with a growing number of Americans doubting the safety and efficacy not only of the COVID-19 vaccine, but also of the established vaccines that have saved millions of children’s lives and added decades to our lifespans over the last century. Vaccine misinformation of the kind peddled by Kennedy has already contributed to a measles resurgence. 

One might say that the Trump administration is attempting to turn back the clock on public health to 1900. The question is why. Applying Occam’s razor – the principle that the simplest explanation is the most likely – one can only conclude that the objective and the effect are the same: to increase the number of people suffering and dying from contagious disease. Now there’s a conspiracy theory for the Trump faithful to sink their paranoia into!

Excerpt from Project-Syndicate 8-28-25

By

JEFFREY FRANKEL

Professor of Capital Formation and Growth at Harvard University, served as a member of President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers. He is a research associate at the US National Bureau of Economic Research.