TRUMP DARK AGES: …..SNUFFING OUT EVERYTHING THAT ADVANCES A HEALTHIER WORLD
Maury Macht, retired journalist, Lincoln, CA
Musk and Trump have finally gone too far with their latest absolutely senseless attacks on the very institutions looking out for every American’s future health.
The gutting of the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health— the sacred cathedral of America’s public health infrastructure that has made us a world leader in medical sciences, miracle drugs, disease prevention and safeguarding the public from bogus medical drug trials and protocols.
This is in addition to Trump’s insane attacks on funding to the nation’s most important medical research campuses, in some cases threatening years of medical trials for diseases.
It is part of Trump’s Dark Age mentality about fighting the spread of disease, which is perplexing coming from a germaphobe. On his first day in office this year, Trump pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization that connects countries and communities dealing with public health issues in shared expertise.
Trump shut down USAID that has been essential in global health programs to combat epidemic diseases and prevent infant and maternal death.
And his appointment of Robert Kennedy Jr. , an anti-vaxer, to the top health position has come under fire for his timid defense of the efficacy of the measles vaccine in the Texas outbreak. In fact, unvaccinated children have shown up at Texas hospitals with liver damage. Their parents heard Kennedy recommend vitamin A as an alternative, but the parents’ excessive overdosing caused liver problems .
It is believed that firings of America’s top experts in their fields at USDA, NIH and CDC, will set back research and prevention expertise for generations. Who thinks that is a good idea?
In his first term, Trump or his appointees did away with the epidemic rapid response network, a short-sighted move that bit him in the behind when the coronavirus hit America and the nation was caught unprepared. (Biden restored it. )
That pales compared to the michegas (crazy activity) of Trump and Musk together. The wholesale cutting of funds to private research centers with stellar results and the sledgehammer firings of America’s renown health experts seems un- American and callous.
The framers of our Constitution in their wisdom included in the preamble a specific directive that the new nation “promote the general welfare” of its citizens.
Among those laid off by Musk is the same expert who obtained experimental monoclonal drugs to administer to Trump when he contracted covid and was helicoptered to the hospital.
The man who was fired is widely credited with saving Trump’s life.