Make America Healthy Again - Trump populism comes to health regulation

[superchuck500]

This is going to need a thread as we move forward - there are now clear signs that Trump supports a new, critical if not dubious approach on vaccination, and his HHS nominee RFK Jr. regularly espouses eating raw milk and raw meat . . . dietary components most experts agree are more dangerous than their heated counterparts.

Health is certainly one of those areas were anti-institutionalism and turning to popular influencers over medical science comes with genuine risk of harm.

Today Trump provided his most clear indication that he is a vaccine skeptic - claiming (falsely of course) that the USA doesn't "do as well" as other nations that use no vaccines at all.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

The neighbor right next to me in my apartment building has two young daughters on the spectrum. She exhausts herself doing everything she can to help her daughters and I don't think she'd let her Catholicism get in the way of getting anything that would help her daughters more.

Also, she's very concerned about RFK Jr's push to create a government list of people diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. I share her concerns about that.

Same. Big same.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here
=========
With preventable infectious diseases surging and top US vaccines adviser saying all vaccine recommendations may be reconsidered, experts are bracing for more polio cases while survivors say the medical system is not ready for polio.

“We don’t have a healthcare infrastructure to take care of a polio outbreak,” said Grace Rossow, an operating-room communications coordinator in Illinois, who has long-term health issues following a case of polio as an infant.

“They don’t know how to treat it. It is a massive problem if we have a resurgence of polio.”

There is no cure for polio; treatment for acute cases usually involves supportive care. Between a quarter and a half of patients develop post-polio syndrome, a lifelong condition. Yet with the advent of highly effective vaccines, doctors who have seen polio cases have become increasingly rare.

Art Caplan was one of the last Americans to get polio in the Boston outbreak in the 1950s. He was seven when his neck and legs began to develop paralysis. He spent six months living at Massachusetts general hospital on a floor devoted to children with polio.

Sometimes the other children would transfer downstairs to iron lungs when they could no longer breathe on their own; sometimes they would die from their illness in the beds next to him.

After months wondering whether he would be next, Caplan suddenly regained use of his legs for reasons no one has been able to fully explain.

But even after his miraculous recovery, he spent years in physical therapy learning how to walk again. Now he uses a walker, as his legs have weakened again. Through the decades, he’s seen polio experts leave the field as they aged and retired.

“There’s nobody left. They don’t see it,” said Caplan, now a professor of medical ethics at NYU Grossman Medical School.

Gordon Allan, a surgeon who is the orthopedic residency director and the total joint reconstructive fellowship director at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, said: “Orthopedics has really changed a lot now from the people who trained me.”

He learned from the previous generation of doctors how to treat post-polio, but even then, there were fewer patients.

“No one practicing has first-hand experience,” Allan said. He is now “at the tail-end” of specialists who know what might be done to alleviate long-term issues, he said, adding: “Orthopedics was quite different because of polio, and all that stuff just faded away.”……..

The polio vaccine has “absolutely been a victim of its own success”, Rossow said. “People aren’t scared of polio any more,” she said, and they don’t understand the risks.

“People don’t really see the daily side of living with a vaccine-preventable disease. With polio, you’re never going to fix us, and that’s the problem. The only thing to fix polio is the polio vaccine.”

For Caplan, the experience “absolutely” shaped him.

“It got me to be very pro-vaccine,” he said.

When Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said the vaccine advisers were reconsidering routine childhood vaccines because the risks of illnesses such as polio had dropped, “that makes me furious”, Caplan said.

“If you could gather up the kids I saw die or become really severely disabled from 50 years ago, they would want you arrested … It’s horrifying, and the height of irresponsibility to leave the door open even a crack,” he continued.

As more families choose not to vaccinate, particularly after the US stopped fully recommending several key vaccines, Caplan said: “You are begging to have a recurrence of the disease.”

Rossow also warned that those “deeply religious and antivax families who just do not believe these diseases exist or will harm them” are unfortunately “the families affected most, due to lack of vaccination, and likely those children will suffer.”…….

Fears of polio resurgence as US vaccine adviser questions need for childhood shots

Survivors say US healthcare system not ready for new cases – ‘the only thing to fix polio is the polio vaccine’

www.theguardian.com

 

[zztop]

15 state attorneys general sue RFK Jr. over "anti-science" vaccine policy

Trump administration’s reduced vaccine schedule “throws science out the window.”...

arstechnica.com

 

[longtime lurker]

This is how not serious the Right is about affordable healthcare:

Trump Administration's New Healthcare Plans Could Slap Families With $31,000 Deductibles | Common Dreams

New Trump healthcare plans offer lower premiums but come with high deductibles, risking financial burden on patients. Experts warn of affordability crisis.

www.commondreams.org

 

[zztop]

US accused of ‘shameless exploitation’ over proposed Zambian health aid deal

Leaked draft of $1bn memorandum of understanding reveals mandatory targets, sharing of data, and reported access to mining concessions

www.theguardian.com

Asia Russell, director of the HIV advocacy organisation Health Gap, said: “These terms are vastly worse than other deals. [The US] is conditioning life-saving health services on plundering the mineral wealth of the country.

“It’s shameless exploitation, which is immoral. It’s also dangerous – when health programmes are treated like a bargaining chip by a rapacious administration, everyone suffers,” she said.

 

[MT15]

Meanwhile we are having the “best” measles outbreak in forever. Just the “best”.

 

[efil4]

The head of DHS. Good grief.

 

[MT15]

This cannot be real. Can it?

 

[fooferdoggie]

Hospitals fighting measles confront a challenge: Few doctors have seen it before​

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — At around 2 a.m., 7-year-old twin brothers arrived at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Both had a fever, a cough, a rash, pink eye, and cold symptoms.
The boys sat in one waiting room and then another. Two hours and 20 minutes passed before the two were isolated, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services records obtained by KFF Health News. Then two more hours ticked by.
As the sun rose, an emergency room doctor called the state epidemiologist and described the symptoms. The public health official told him to keep the kids in the hospital and quarantine them. Shortly after that call, the patients were diagnosed.
It was measles.
Hospital staff gave the father instructions on how to quarantine the family and sent them home.

Hospitals fighting measles confront a challenge: Few doctors have seen it before

By � Andrew Jones �for KFF ASHEVILLE, N.C. — At around 2 a.m., 7-year-old twin brothers arrived at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Both had a fever, a cough, a rash, pink eye, and cold symptoms. ...

www.dailykos.com

 

[faceman]

Guess this can go here
=========
With preventable infectious diseases surging and top US vaccines adviser saying all vaccine recommendations may be reconsidered, experts are bracing for more polio cases while survivors say the medical system is not ready for polio.

“We don’t have a healthcare infrastructure to take care of a polio outbreak,” said Grace Rossow, an operating-room communications coordinator in Illinois, who has long-term health issues following a case of polio as an infant.

“They don’t know how to treat it. It is a massive problem if we have a resurgence of polio.”

There is no cure for polio; treatment for acute cases usually involves supportive care. Between a quarter and a half of patients develop post-polio syndrome, a lifelong condition. Yet with the advent of highly effective vaccines, doctors who have seen polio cases have become increasingly rare.

Art Caplan was one of the last Americans to get polio in the Boston outbreak in the 1950s. He was seven when his neck and legs began to develop paralysis. He spent six months living at Massachusetts general hospital on a floor devoted to children with polio.

Sometimes the other children would transfer downstairs to iron lungs when they could no longer breathe on their own; sometimes they would die from their illness in the beds next to him.

After months wondering whether he would be next, Caplan suddenly regained use of his legs for reasons no one has been able to fully explain.

But even after his miraculous recovery, he spent years in physical therapy learning how to walk again. Now he uses a walker, as his legs have weakened again. Through the decades, he’s seen polio experts leave the field as they aged and retired.

“There’s nobody left. They don’t see it,” said Caplan, now a professor of medical ethics at NYU Grossman Medical School.

Gordon Allan, a surgeon who is the orthopedic residency director and the total joint reconstructive fellowship director at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, said: “Orthopedics has really changed a lot now from the people who trained me.”

He learned from the previous generation of doctors how to treat post-polio, but even then, there were fewer patients.

“No one practicing has first-hand experience,” Allan said. He is now “at the tail-end” of specialists who know what might be done to alleviate long-term issues, he said, adding: “Orthopedics was quite different because of polio, and all that stuff just faded away.”……..

The polio vaccine has “absolutely been a victim of its own success”, Rossow said. “People aren’t scared of polio any more,” she said, and they don’t understand the risks.

“People don’t really see the daily side of living with a vaccine-preventable disease. With polio, you’re never going to fix us, and that’s the problem. The only thing to fix polio is the polio vaccine.”

For Caplan, the experience “absolutely” shaped him.

“It got me to be very pro-vaccine,” he said.

When Kirk Milhoan, the chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said the vaccine advisers were reconsidering routine childhood vaccines because the risks of illnesses such as polio had dropped, “that makes me furious”, Caplan said.

“If you could gather up the kids I saw die or become really severely disabled from 50 years ago, they would want you arrested … It’s horrifying, and the height of irresponsibility to leave the door open even a crack,” he continued.

As more families choose not to vaccinate, particularly after the US stopped fully recommending several key vaccines, Caplan said: “You are begging to have a recurrence of the disease.”

Rossow also warned that those “deeply religious and antivax families who just do not believe these diseases exist or will harm them” are unfortunately “the families affected most, due to lack of vaccination, and likely those children will suffer.”…….

Fears of polio resurgence as US vaccine adviser questions need for childhood shots

Survivors say US healthcare system not ready for new cases – ‘the only thing to fix polio is the polio vaccine’

www.theguardian.com

I'll repeat what I said on the EE board. Polio will return. It's not a matter of if,but when? 100% of the blame will be on
Trumps hands. He's the one that nominated that whack job to head HHS.

 

[MT15]

I'll repeat what I said on the EE board. Polio will return. It's not a matter of if,but when? 100% of the blame will be on
Trumps hands. He's the one that nominated that whack job to head HHS.

I will always blame my senators as well. They didn’t have to confirm him. One of them is MAGA and an idiot, but the other one knows better.

 

[bird]

I will always blame my senators as well. They didn’t have to confirm him. One of them is MAGA and an idiot, but the other one knows better.

Me as well. Both senators in Ohio are idiots and Republican but I repeat myself. One is a wage thief.

 

[MT15]

mRNA will allow us to do so many things - but not now.

 

[LA 2 L.A.]

I'll repeat what I said on the EE board. Polio will return. It's not a matter of if,but when? 100% of the blame will be on
Trumps hands. He's the one that nominated that whack job to head HHS.

I have an older friend who was part of the last group of children to get infected by polio. He was fortunately able to walk without device assistance, but he was hobbled by it. The stories he told be about how painful the infection and recovery were was heartbreaking, and he was one of the lucky ones. It's a devastating disease.

 

[bird]

This cannot be real. Can it?

What the actual fork?

 

[bird]

Proposal would loosen rabies vaccine requirements for certain pets — for a fee • New Hampshire Bulletin

The New Hampshire House of Representatives is considering a bill that would exempt some pets from booster shots intended to protect against rabies, but state veterinarians said the proposal was not founded on solid data.

newhampshirebulletin.com

This is MAGA in a nutshell. MAGA is the ultimate example of libertarian philosophy. It is the whining of a spoiled 4 year old dressed up and paraded around as “freedom”.

 

[Optimus Prime]

As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.

Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s.

The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.

Leaders of this campaign include the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy led for years, a group run by his longtime book publisher, and Leslie Manookian, an Idaho film-maker, homeopath and activist whom Kennedy has called his friend.

Doctors and advocates for children’s health warn that removing or weakening mandates, particularly those that require vaccination in schools, will lead to lower vaccination rates – and more illness and suffering for families.

“We will see more outbreaks. We will see children missing school, parents missing work,” said Dr Jana Shaw, an infectious disease specialist who has conducted research on vaccine hesitancy.

“We will see increased costs for those families whose children will get sick and develop complications and disability. Some of them will die.”

The groups pushing to end such laws say that vaccine mandates, including those that require children to get immunized to go to school, violate the freedom people should have to take part in activities such as school or work without getting immunized.

They often underpin their justifications for that position by providing false or misleading information to their supporters that plays up the risks of vaccines and downplays the dangers of illness.……

Among the groups pushing the changes is the recently formed Medical Freedom Act Coalition, which has brought together 15 organizations to advocate for legislation modeled on a 2025 Idaho law that prohibits medical mandates in many settings. Organizers said in interviews they oppose every kind of medical mandate.

“This is the most basic human right, the right to decide what we put into and on our bodies,” said Manookian, one of the leaders of the new coalition, who is based in Idaho and was a driving force behind the law.

The coalition is led by Manookian’s group, the Health Freedom Defense Fund, and Stand for Health Freedom, which has been working since 2019 to influence vaccine-related state legislation. Among the 15 groups that have joined are Kennedy-affiliated anti-vaccine groups including Maha Action, run by his publisher Tony Lyons, and Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy led before he joined the Trump administration.

Manookian said the coalition is not spreading false facts.

“Epidemiological data is being used politically and selectively to create a scapegoat for routine infection rates that rise and fall, every year,” Manookian said.…….

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws

Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

www.theguardian.com

 

[bird]

As South Carolina grapples with a measles outbreak that has infected nearly 1,000 people, groups with ties to the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are pushing to eliminate immunization requirements that protect children.

Activists are targeting vaccine mandates in states trying to tamp down measles as communities across the country struggle to stop the worst spread of the illness since the early 1990s.

The Guardian found anti-vaccine groups are encouraging their followers to organize opposition to vaccine mandates in more than 20 states, including at least six with current measles outbreaks.

Leaders of this campaign include the anti-vaccine organization Kennedy led for years, a group run by his longtime book publisher, and Leslie Manookian, an Idaho film-maker, homeopath and activist whom Kennedy has called his friend.

Doctors and advocates for children’s health warn that removing or weakening mandates, particularly those that require vaccination in schools, will lead to lower vaccination rates – and more illness and suffering for families.

“We will see more outbreaks. We will see children missing school, parents missing work,” said Dr Jana Shaw, an infectious disease specialist who has conducted research on vaccine hesitancy.

“We will see increased costs for those families whose children will get sick and develop complications and disability. Some of them will die.”

The groups pushing to end such laws say that vaccine mandates, including those that require children to get immunized to go to school, violate the freedom people should have to take part in activities such as school or work without getting immunized.

They often underpin their justifications for that position by providing false or misleading information to their supporters that plays up the risks of vaccines and downplays the dangers of illness.……

Among the groups pushing the changes is the recently formed Medical Freedom Act Coalition, which has brought together 15 organizations to advocate for legislation modeled on a 2025 Idaho law that prohibits medical mandates in many settings. Organizers said in interviews they oppose every kind of medical mandate.

“This is the most basic human right, the right to decide what we put into and on our bodies,” said Manookian, one of the leaders of the new coalition, who is based in Idaho and was a driving force behind the law.

The coalition is led by Manookian’s group, the Health Freedom Defense Fund, and Stand for Health Freedom, which has been working since 2019 to influence vaccine-related state legislation. Among the 15 groups that have joined are Kennedy-affiliated anti-vaccine groups including Maha Action, run by his publisher Tony Lyons, and Children’s Health Defense, which Kennedy led before he joined the Trump administration.

Manookian said the coalition is not spreading false facts.

“Epidemiological data is being used politically and selectively to create a scapegoat for routine infection rates that rise and fall, every year,” Manookian said.…….

As measles spreads in South Carolina, RFK Jr’s allies work to gut vaccine laws

Activists who dispute safety of vaccines are pushing to limit immunization requirements in schools

www.theguardian.com

They get sick from diseases prevented by vaccines…don’t treat them. Party of personal responsibility and all that.