If the Trump administration set out to deliberately undermine public health, especially among the most vulnerable Americans, it is doing a thorough job so far — from cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and other relied-upon programs, to the elevation of a vaccine denier to one of the most influential positions in government.
Just last week, the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, CVS, announced that it would delay distributing the COVID vaccine in 16 states, including Virginia, due to “the current regulatory environment.” That uncertainty underscores the folly of putting a crank in charge of the nation’s public health, the consequences of which will cause deep and lasting harm to millions of Americans.
Arguably the most successful program during President Donald Trump’s first term was the rapid development of a vaccine to combat COVID-19. “Operation Warp Speed,” as the initiative was known, stood as a triumph of health and science at a time when the virus was killing scores of people and measures to curb transmission kept millions shuttered in their homes.
The COVID vaccine represented hope — hope for a day when we could return to our lives and businesses could resume operations. Like so many other vaccines developed over the years, it protected public health, improved outcomes and ensured that infection was far less likely to be a death sentence.
Rather than tout that achievement, however, Trump has subsequently run from it and instead embraced the anti-science vaccine skepticism that bubbled up during the pandemic. At a time when he could have said the COVID vaccine was safe and effective (it is), he recklessly sowed doubt, putting lives in danger.
Worse, in a cynical move intended to secure a second term, Trump joined forces with Robert Kennedy Jr., perhaps the most famous anti-science, anti-vaccine activist in the country. Together they outlined a radical “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, laden with debunked theories, snake oil nonsense and pseudo-science remedies.
Then Trump doubled down by nominating the wholly unqualified and, frankly, dangerous Kennedy to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hope that the Senate would see reason came to naught, with 52 of 53 Republicans voting to confirm. Only former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has already announced that he will retire at the end of his term, demonstrated backbone when needed.
In fewer than eight months, Kennedy has ravaged that department with the full endorsement of Trump and help from Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. They moved to fire 20,000 workers before being stopped by a judge and having to rehire key personnel as programs stalled and grant applications backed up.
Kennedy shuttered programs that sought to reduce chronic conditions such as heart disease, cancer and strokes. He stood by as the largest measles outbreak in decades unfolded on his watch, encouraging homeopathic remedies rather than vaccines. He fired experienced and qualified members of advisory boards, and canceled grants for promising research at the National Institutes of Health, which will cede that work to Europe and China.
Last month, Kennedy axed $500 million in grants and contracts for developing mRNA vaccines, the type used for the COVID shots and which could be a game-changer for other diseases, such as bird flu. He followed that up by firing the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving that agency rudderless.
None of this is a surprise, of course. Kennedy’s views were already clear when 52 Republicans voted to confirm him, and the consequences are about what one may have expected from his record in public life.
But that doesn’t make it easier to swallow. We’re only five years removed from a deadly pandemic that claimed more than 1.2 million American lives. It’s astounding, and indefensible, that we’re less prepared for the next one thanks to Kennedy’s actions.
Calls for him to resign grow by the day, and justifiably so. The longer he stays in office, the longer it will take to repair the damage he has done.
