Of all the things President Trump has done in his first days back in office, I am most baffled—but not surprised—by his attacks on health. His actions have shown a hostility toward science, openness, collaboration and, well, common sense.
Consider:
• He withdrew the United States from the World Health Organization, which the U.S. helped establish in 1948. He claimed the organization mishandled the COVID-19 crisis, among other complaints, but his primary rationale: We’re paying an unfair share. As NPR reports: “(Trump) noted that the U.S. pays WHO $500 million annually compared to China’s $39 million contribution.” (However, those figures are inaccurate and exaggerated.) That NPR piece also discussed the message that the United States’ withdrawal is sending: “‘It would signal an attack by the largest and most economically powerful country in the world on international health cooperation,’ says David McCoy, a public health researcher at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That cooperation, he argues, is essential for managing pandemics and other cross-border health threats.”
• He’s stopped the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from functioning, essentially, at least temporarily. The New York Times says: “The Trump administration, moving quickly to clamp down on health and science agencies, has canceled a string of scientific meetings and instructed federal health officials to refrain from all public communications, including upcoming reports focused on the nation’s escalating bird flu crisis. Experts who serve on outside advisory panels on a range of topics, from antibiotic resistance to deafness, received emails on Wednesday telling them their meetings had been canceled. The cancellations followed a directive issued on Tuesday by the acting director of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, who prohibited the release of any public communication until it had been reviewed by a presidential appointee or designee, according to federal officials and an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times.” Why is he “clamping down” on science?
• Trump shut down an office intended to help the country prepare for the next pandemic. The Los Angeles Times reports: “He has … shuttered the Biden-era White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness, which was directed by Congress to streamline and coordinate the nation’s response to burgeoning pandemics, such as avian flu. Since the office’s formation in 2023, it has initiated multiagency coordinated efforts to ‘test’ the nation’s preparedness for novel disease outbreaks, and has provided advice and coordination regarding vaccine development and availability among various health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. A visit to the office’s website Wednesday morning showed a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error message.”
• He’s halted the distribution of U.S.-funded HIV drugs around the world. The New York Times reports: “The Trump administration has instructed organizations in other countries to stop disbursing HIV medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are sitting in local clinics. The directive is part of a broader freeze on foreign aid initiated last week. It includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the global health program started by George W. Bush that is credited with saving more than 25 million lives worldwide. The administration had already moved to stop PEPFAR funding from moving to clinics, hospitals and other organizations in low-income countries. Appointments are being canceled, and patients are being turned away from clinics, according to people with knowledge of the situation who feared retribution if they spoke publicly. Many people with HIV are facing abrupt interruptions to their treatment.”
• Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. NPR reports: “The prospect of his confirmation has resulted in opposition from many people in the medical field, who cite his extensive history of promoting inaccurate claims on vaccines, infectious diseases and other areas of medical science. … Nobel laureates have written that Kennedy would put the nation’s health in jeopardy. The American Public Health Association, representing 25,000 professionals in that field, has come out against his nomination, based on his ‘consistent disregard for scientific evidence.’ And recently thousands of physicians and others in health care have signed onto letters echoing these concerns.”
The message is clear: Under the leadership of Donald J. Trump, power, politics and ideology matter.
The well-being of Nevadans and people around the world does not.