Before Trump took office, we didn’t know exactly how badly his hatred for truth and reason would affect America. After only a few weeks in office we already have a pretty good idea. But there’s one thing largely absent from mainstream conversations about health care under the Republicans: Trump’s incorrect beliefs about vaccinations.
Republicans are the anti-health party — if they have their way, reproductive health access, insurance coverage, and medical costs all change for the worse. That’s what makes this op-ed in The New York Times particularly unsettling. In “How the Anti-Vaxxers Are Winning,” pediatrician Peter J. Hotez says 2017 will likely be the start of a “reversal of several decades in steady public health gains” and predicts the “first blow” to those gains will be measles outbreaks. Thanks, Trump.
Hotez, who serves as the director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, shows how Trump’s love of conspiracies puts America’s health at risk.
The myth that vaccines like the one that prevents measles are connected to autism has persisted despite rock-solid proof to the contrary. Donald Trump has given credence to such views in tweets and during a Republican debate, but as president he has said nothing to support vaccination opponents, so there is reason to hope that his views are changing.
However, a leading proponent of the link between vaccines and autism said he recently met with the president to discuss the creation of a presidential commission to investigate vaccine safety. Such a commission would be a throwback to the 2000s, when Representative Dan Burton of Indiana held fruitless hearings and conducted investigations on this topic. And a documentary alleging a conspiracy at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” has recently been shown around the country.
As a scientist leading global efforts to develop vaccines for neglected poverty-related diseases like schistosomiasis and Chagas’ disease, and as the dad of an adult daughter with autism and other disabilities, I’m worried that our nation’s health will soon be threatened because we have not stood up to the pseudoscience and fake conspiracy claims of this movement.
We have to keep decrying “alternative facts” and fight for the suppression of fake news sites. There are literally lives on the line in the battle for transparency, truth, and science.