Over the most of the past century, the US’s track record on infectious diseases has been very good. Major public health investments, such as natural PO, polio, yellow fever, malaria, measles, measles, mumps, diphtheria, and tuberculosis, have either been erased or gone. Aniruddha Hazra, an infectious disease doctor at Uchicago Medicine, told me that America “led the charges.” A national approach to public health was expected to help set health standards around the world.
That era may be over. In recent years, the US has already begun to ignore public health infrastructure, weakening the protections needed to keep infections at bay. The Trump administration is now beyond its poor maintenance. They are trying to actively destroy it.
In two months, the administration cut funding for biomedical research. Grant university. This caused the suspension of domestic and international clinical trials. Destroyed public health workers. Cancelled or postponed vaccine advisory meetings with the government. And it overthrew the usual practices of federal agencies dedicated to promoting health in America. Reductions in foreign aid have keratinized HIV and malaria medications at ports and storage facilities. Ebola is left to swell and spread. Domestic, the federal government’s response to an increase in measles outbreak has underestimated the vaccine’s protective capabilities. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., new secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services, suggests that H5N1 bird flu should be allowed to burn the country’s poultry. And the administration is reportedly pondering the CDC’s HIV budget to prevent disease in the US
Kennedy was on the president’s campaign in November 2023 It has been declared He wanted the government to “give an infectious disease a break for about eight years.” He and the rest of the Trump administration are more than making that promise well, as it hinders the daily work of researching, surveillance and outbreak management of infectious diseases. Donald Trump’s America isn’t just giving breaks to infectious diseases. From protecting pathogens to inviting them straight away, it’s circling.
In an email, HHS Deputy Reporter Secretary Emily G. Hilliard defended Kennedy’s actions, saying the agency is “committed to promoting radical transparency so that Americans can make informed choices about their health.” White House spokesman Kush Desai reflected this concept and denounced “a tinsel report on the Trump administration’s work” for its lack of public confidence in the health care system.
Before the second Trump administration took office, US investments to maintain the disease had already been flagged for a long time. People forgot to fear them as their citizens managed to minimize the threat of infection. At least it’s slow, so the US spends almost every aspect of public health flattened or declined;After the start of the coronavirus pandemic, childhood vaccination rates have immersed throughout the country and have not bounced back. Rather than reaffirming the country’s commitment to public health, Covid has cemented the hostility of many Americans towards it.
When most of the community is involved in public health interventions, almost everyone can stay safe. But the more people opt out, the more everyone’s health is at risk. Many Americans make that choice more frequently these days. For example, during the pandemic, when repeatedly sought vaccinations and called for quarantines, distance and masks to “oppose people’s autonomy,” many Americans chose to agree with what they think best for themselves as individuals. Public health guidelines are not the Bible, and Americans will find many reasons to argue when restrictions go too far or when health officials get wrong in guidance. However, public health has inevitably struggled for years with an attitude of “no need to worry about what everyone else is doing, you can control your health.”
Despite the continued infectious threats that continue to sweep the country, its individualistic perspective is now translated into national policy. After avian flu spread rapidly to dairy cows and began to infect farm workers, the Biden administration lagged behind attempts to track and contain the virus, leaving behind a large decision on testing cows for pathogens, the most effective way to spread to individual farmers. (Under Joe Biden, the USDA fought for its inadequate response.) By the time the Second Trump administration took over the crisis, H5N1 had already killed Americans, but even so, the country’s new leaders did not mean a response. If there is no adequate cattle surveillance, the virus continues to be transmitted on the farm. More targeted protections for chicken and dairy workers (the most exposed to H5N1) keep people sick.
With the growth of measles outbreaks that began in Texas in January, Kennedy emphasizes the importance of autonomy to the point where the US recorded more measles cases in all of 2024 than ever before. Vaccination is the fastest way to stop the outbreak of measles, and Kennedy publicly recognizes that vaccines protect individuals and “contribute to community immunity.” However, he also repeatedly exaggerated the risks of the vaccine and refused to urge parents to vaccinate their children. And the continuous framing of his shots “Personal” choice Eliminate their protective interests to everyone else. The unvaccinated child killed by the measles outbreak last month would not have died if she had been vaccinated. And even though the vaccine rates were high in her community, she may have never been infected in the first place.
However, the Trump administration’s actions show that it underestimates the possibility of a rise in infection rates. Kennedy promoted good nutrition and vitamin A supplementation as a viable solution to the Texas outbreak. Essentially, the national approach to disease is to try to limit the damage to infectious diseases rather than preventing them. (Vitamin A deficiency can exacerbate measles cases, but that type of malnutrition is extremely rare in the United States and cannot prevent people exposed to measles from catching it.) Meanwhile, the freeze in foreign aid has rescued HIV anti-worm-resistant drugs for over 20 years, and rescued them for over 20 years. That support disappeared 20 million people Living with HIV can cause more than 500,000 of these children to be isolated from life-saving medication.
The administration is also considering major improvements Domestic HIV funding. Among the goals is the CDC budget for HIV. This is the 91% source of federal funding for HIV prevention in the United States aimed at tracking infections, helping to increase testing and drug access to avoid new cases, and to protect at least 1.2 million Americans who are estimated to live with the virus. Jade Pagkas-Bather, an infectious disease doctor at Uchicago Medicine, removed access to these types of important resources and said, “My patient will die.” (HHS spokesman Hilliard said “no final decision has been made regarding the streamlining of the CDC’s HIV prevention division.”
Sometimes the administration took an adventure Proposal Murray pointed out because of exposure to dangerous bacteria. For example, Kennedy praises the benefits of gaining immunity to measles through infection. I’m saying These protections last longer than immunity derived from vaccination (a statement that does not explain the occasional fatal and debilitating risk of illness) claims that there is no basis for measles infections to protect against cancer and heart disease as well. He has been like that for the last few weeks Recommended Poultry farms are at least a possible proposal to destroy flocks to allow the virus to simply tear through the birds, and at worst there is a risk that the virus will turn into a form that can spread among humans.
In line with his original promise, Kennedy has found many ways to limit biomedical research to infectious diseases. The administration was forced to exempt the National Institutes of Health from research focusing on LGBTQ populations. Some A project dedicated to HIV and referring to vaccine reluctance. (In an email, Hilliard defended the funding cuts as “part of a broader effort to redirect resources towards more urgent public health priorities, particularly on the safety and efficacy of vaccines.” Losing these projects could directly lead to more deaths. However, ending sends a subtle message, Hazra told me: Many already marginalized populations affected by a fatal infection must protect themselves.
But abandoning vulnerable people will not disappear from the infectious problem. I’m against it. Unchecked, the disease is flowing into new groups and crossing the border. Diseases such as measles and polio have been declared excluded from the United States. Without continuous effort, they may not stay that way. And if those diseases re-filter the country forever, they will wipe out the unequipped population to fight them again. The health infrastructure the US has to marshall against them is already weak. There may be more federal layoffs come It could further reduce public health workers. Biomedical research is covered throughout the field. And if they propose cutting Medicaid funding, the country will have less equipment to provide care to those who need it the most.
All the actions of the administration emphasize individual freedom. However, these values are not compatible with non-fat countries. Infectious diseases essentially utilize individualism. The Liberty version is finding unprotected and spreading it more freely. The United States has the money, technology and expertise to become a country that minimizes the impact of infectious diseases for decades. Current leaders have stopped saying they embrace a world filled with infectious deaths. But their actions suggest that those sacrifices are exactly the kind they are willing to make.
