Make America Healthy Again - Trump populism comes to health regulation (8 Viewers)

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    superchuck500

    superchuck500

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    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.

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    coldseat said:
    Generic Prep isn't outrageously expensive, It's about $25-$35 per month. Prep is by far the most effective way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, that's what I think should be the focus. It isn't costing as much money as you seem to believe it is. Cutting it will not save the government any money, just cost more in the long term. Which would make it fiscally irresponsible to cut.
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    At $35 month, why does it have to be free to everyone? I would understand Medicaid covering it, but not all Obamacare plans.
     
    Lapaz said:
    At $35 month, why does it have to be free to everyone? I would understand Medicaid covering it, but not all Obamacare plans.
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    It's good public health policy. It seems we disagree on that point. Obamacare is just subsidized private health insurance for those that qualify.

    To be clear, I wouldn't have a problem paying a copay like I do for other medication. But I think it should be free for those that can't afford it. And coverage should definitely be mandated. But I think it's just better public health policy to cover it for free and encourage those that are I high risk to take it. I also think single payer would be better than what we have.
     
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    The US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, entered office with a pledge to tackle the US’s chronic disease epidemic and give infectious disease a “break”. In at least one of those goals, Kennedy has been expeditious.

    Experts said as Kennedy makes major cuts in public health in his first weeks in office, the infrastructure built to mitigate Covid-19 has become a clear target – an aim that has the dual effect of weakening immunization efforts as the US endures the largest measles outbreak since 2000.

    “If his goal is to undermine public health infrastructure, he’s making strides there,” said Dorit Reiss, a University of California Law School professor whose research focuses on vaccine law. “If his goal is combating chronic diseases – he’s not doing very well.”

    The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been characterized by upheaval since Kennedy and the billionaire Elon Musk’s unofficial “department of government efficiency” (Doge) cumulatively axed 20,000 jobs – roughly a quarter of the 82,000-person workforce.

    And it appears that turmoil will continue: a leaked budget memo shows the administration poised to propose a budget cut of another $40bn, or roughly one-third of the department’s discretionary spending.

    Amid the cuts, attacks on Covid-19 infrastructure have proven thematic, and show the administration’s hostility toward work that once mitigated the virus. That’s included attacking promising vaccine platforms and elevating once-ostracized voices to high-level roles.

    “The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” a spokesperson for HHS told the Guardian in response to questions about its strategy.

    “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

    Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale University associate professor and infectious disease epidemiologist, calls this strategy the “revenge of the Covid contrarians”.

    “They’re not interested in the science, they’re interested in their conclusions and having the science bend to their will,” said Gonsalves. “They want to create a Potemkin village of their own making that looks like science but has nothing to do with science at all.”………

    www.theguardian.com

    How ‘revenge of the Covid contrarians’ unleashed by RFK Jr puts broader vaccine advances at risk

    The health secretary has pledged to fight chronic illness, but experts say he risks increasing it with department cuts
    www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
     
    superchuck500 said:
    Pluto wasn’t discovered until 1930 but it was always there. Breast cancer rates grew substantially in the 1980s but researchers are quite certain that it was due to dramatically better diagnostic tools (ie mammograms).

    Yes of course it’s always value to be researching causes in hopes of mitigating incidence - but we have been researching autism. There are whole facilities and grants dedicated to it.

    And then RFK - a man with no medical or research background whatsoever - comes in as HHS Secretary and says things like “these things weren’t talked about when I was a kid” as if it’s some empirical basis for any reasonable observation? It’s junk science based on lingering notions that have been discredited but will now be the basis for US policy and resources advanced by fringe non-specialists. The mere fact that he’s even talking about it like this dismisses decades of legitimate research.

    And did you hear how he described autism? We’re supposed to be open minded about that? This is nothing more than medical populism
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    This piece in the Atlantic hits the nail on the head: RFK Jr. does not appear to really understand how legitimate medical and scientific research is conducted, and has a long history of saying things that are pure quack. None of that is changed just because he's now the HHS Secretary. Instead, we can expect that his quack viewpoint will now become HHS policy and guide what results the "research" it conducts produces. And that's not a good thing.

    www.theatlantic.com

    ‘This Is Not How We Do Science, Ever’

    The Trump administration is manipulating government-sponsored research to get the answers it wants.
    www.theatlantic.com www.theatlantic.com
     
    Iirc, RFK, Jr. is taking testosterone. Could he have issues due to that?
     
    bird said:
    Iirc, RFK, Jr. is taking testosterone. Could he have issues due to that?
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    Well, let’s see. He also has a brain parasite left in place, and has malignant narcissistic personality disorders. And a history of extreme drug use. So yeah let’s throw extra testosterone in that lovely mix. Why not?

    He’s a sociopath.
     
    MT15 said:
    Well, let’s see. He also has a brain parasite left in place, and has malignant narcissistic personality disorders. And a history of extreme drug use. So yeah let’s throw extra testosterone in that lovely mix. Why not?

    He’s a sociopath.
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    Yeah, what could possibly go wrong? Other than kids dying of measles or being hospitalized with vitamin A toxicity?
     
    coldseat said:
    Can anybody explain the Trump administration's attack on cancer research and researchers? Unlike their anti-DEI rage, I honestly don't get this one other than just general attack on science. But cancer research?
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    Hope trump gets anal cancer. then no one can stick their heads up his arse.
     
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