“Make America healthy again you say? So open up thousands more hospitals around the country especially in rural areas or towns where private equity is buying them up and stripping them for parts? Make healthcare free for all? Invest in a big push to train and hire more doctors and healthcare workers? Is that what they want to do?” — Luke O’Neil, who points out the answer is no.
Neither RFK nor anyone in the Toddler Administration wants to make us healthier. Rather than help people they’d sooner see the poor and uninsured die and decrease the surplus population. After all, they have money and world-class healthcare — they’ll never have to worry about being part of the surplus. Whatever hellish effect RFK is about to have on preventive medicine, he’ll make out fine.
Minorities, though? “The Health Department’s office to improve the health of minorities has abruptly terminated more than half its existing grants, saying they didn’t focus on the Trump administration’s new priorities of addressing infertility and encouraging exercise. Some grantees provided cancer screenings or postpartum home visits. Others worked to reduce first-responder suicide or decrease obesity among Native American youth. All of the funds came from the Office of Minority Health, which the administration tried to shutter last year.”
Kennedy, of course, is an anti-vax zealot. Measles is killing Americans again, probably way more than we know of, but the response from Kennedy’s department and the anti-vax movement is deny, deny, deny — measles didn’t kill them, total coincidence they had it when they died. Kennedy says that of course he cares about the dead children but “They get headlines. We should care about the children who are dying or suffering or being injured by vaccine injuries.” Never mind that measles is a serious threat and vaccines are not, Kennedy’s got a crackpot conspiracy theory to push! Speaking of which, his department’s also investigating the non-existent threat of chemtrails.
As Scott Lemieux says, “The strategy that RFK Jr. is using to try to deny responsibility for the effects of his measles outbreak is the same one Bari Weiss tried to use to diminish the impact of the food blockade in Gaza — since the people who face the worst consequences are often those with other health problems, pretend that it’s really only the other health problems that matter, The cynicism and amorality in both cases is readily apparent. There are people dead who would still be alive in Pennsylvania if not for RFK Jr.’s tireless anti-vaccine activism, and many many more who have become seriously ill.” I’ll go out on a limb and say RFK won’t be so careful about causes of death when he investigates whether covid vaccines killed members of the military.
By contrast, Kennedy talks a good game about environmental poisons and eating healthy but the reality? Fruit-flavored vapes are back on the market. Plus “The FDA recently hit a record 19 simultaneous outbreak investigations, covering everything from infant formula to jalapeños” while cutting inspection staffing. Cattle ranchers will be free to inspect their own meat under a rule to “allow some smaller ranches to bypass USDA-inspected processing facilities” But the Toddler doesn’t care about them: he’s happy to undercut meat prices by shipping in mystery meat bought from a friend of Melania’s. Oh, and at least one Toddler judge has ruled there’s no obligation on government utilities to provide clean drinking water.
As Lemieux says, every Republican Senator except Mitch McConnell voted for Kennedy, even though they knew perfectly well what his policies were. Senator Bill Cassidy (Louisiana) is expressing great concern for the damage RFK Jr. is doing but he voted him in. So did my senators, Thom Tillis and Ted Budd; Tillis said he voted yes because Kennedy would be a disruptor in healthcare. As I say at the link, I don’t want my healthcare disrupted — I doubt Budd or Tillis would want that, but theirs isn’t at risk.
But they’re fine with the rest of us dying.
