Public health experts discuss health policies in a second Trump term

Source: Scripps News

Posted 8:42 PM, Nov 07, 2024


President-elect Trump's second term may look to expand on his first in terms of the impacts on our health care. Much of what we've heard has been from Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Make America Healthy Again" plan. Trump's first term may also offer clues to what's to come. And there's Agenda 47, Trump's policy plans for his time in office. Some changes to federal health bureaus and purviews could include the Affordable Care Act, public health regulations, CDC guidance, research, vaccines, and drinking water.

Public health experts shared their worry about what Trump's second term may bring. "We remain concerned that a lot of the rhetoric that occurred during the campaign. Now, I understand its campaign rhetoric, [but it] wasn't necessarily evidence based. And we know that many of the people that have been speaking are people that have been known to give bad information, misinformation, and in some cases disinformation around health," said Dr. Georges Benjamin, the Executive Director of the American Public Health Association.

RFK Jr. has said sweeping changes will come for federal health agencies, both during and after he suspended his own campaign. In a November 5 video on his website, he said "Our big priority will be to clean up the public health agencies like CDC, NIH, FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those agencies have become sock puppets in the industries that they're supposed to regulate."Experts say RFK Jr. has a history of spreading anti-vaccine false information, including the long-debunked claim of vaccines and autism that stemmed from flawed studies in the late 90s and early 2000s which have since been retracted.

"For decades, RFK Jr. has been a source of misinformation and outright lies regarding vaccinations and other treatments for disease. When you see someone like him get the ear of the president elect and sort of brag about the influence they're going to have, that is something that could be very chilling," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.


Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/health/public-health-experts-discuss-health-policies-in-a-second-trump-term