When the COVID-19 pandemic began in December 2019 and hit the United States with a vengeance in 2020, the United States was woefully unprepared and to make matters worse, the Trump administration actively worked to undermine scientists, doctors and public health officials resulting in the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. We are now facing another Trump administration which will be even less prepared for the next pandemic because of the vaccine-denying, conspiracy theorist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr who he has picked to lead the Department of Health.
The United States already has one of the highest pregnancy mortality rates of any of the world’s richest and most industrialize countries and, now that the impacts of the overturning of Roe v. Wade are being felt, it is going up even higher. The situation is even more dire for women of color. It is an issue that should be an embarrassment and outrage to all Americans. With the pick of Kennedy to lead the health agencies the situation is quite likely to worsen.
The relatively high pregnancy mortality rate for a country that often views itself (and quite often mistakenly) as the ‘best’ at everything is tragic and embarrassing. With Kennedy at the helm of the health agencies and pro-gun Republicans in charge of Congress, it is likely that the child mortality rate in this country will also begin to needlessly rise.
Guns are already the leading cause of deaths in children. That will certainly not improve given the love of guns by the Bible-thumping, gun toting crowd now in charge. They view the American dream as every house having multiple TVs to watch Fox news propaganda, a nice little wife in the kitchen fixing meals and at least one AR-15 style assault rifle and multiple handguns ‘for self-defense’.
In addition to the increase in child deaths related to guns, Kennedy will make sure that child deaths related to preventable diseases like measles will increase. As an example, Kennedy visited the island of Samoa in 2019 after a human error in administering measles vaccines resulted in the deaths of two children. Kennedy lent credence to the anti-vaccine activists, even though there was absolutely no proof that the vaccines themselves caused the deaths of the children.
Vaccine rates plummeted. The result, as predictable as the sun coming up, was a subsequent outbreak of measles which caused the deaths of 83 people (out of a population of 200,000) and most of those deaths were among children. Kennedy later said the outbreak was ‘mild’ and denied having anything to do with it. The parents of the children who died would probably disagree with his assessment of ‘mild.’
Nonetheless, this is what we are facing, if and when, Kennedy is confirmed to take the reins of the health agencies. The U.S. Supreme Court and the various Republican state legislatures have ensured that the mortality rate for pregnant women will continue to rise. The Republican Congress will ensure the guns remain the leading cause of childhood deaths. And Kennedy will ensure that the deaths from childhood diseases like measles will rise significantly by giving credence to vaccine deniers and skeptics around the country resulting in measles outbreaks across the nation.
If I were a cynic, I’d think it might be a good time to invest in the funeral business. I know that is a crass statement, but then again, Trump and his circus are continuing to lower the bar as to what is acceptable behavior. And if another pandemic hits during the next four years, I can’t even imagine how devastating it will be. You might want to stock up now on N-95 masks, Purell, and Lysol!!
