This is a disaster
Donald Trump’s obsession with cutting government jobs is destructive for many reasons, from a personal to a national level. However, his chainsaw approach to the health sector creates a new long-term consequence that threatens all of us. Trump’s staggering cuts in health-related jobs mean a future without being able to collect and interpret critical health data, putting Americans’ wellbeing and lives at risk.
Under HHS Secretary RFK Jr., thousands of public health workers, researchers, and program staff were dismissed from federal agencies like the CDC and NIH. This means established programs are shuttering, slamming the brakes when it comes to routine work and efforts toward future scientific progress. This “incredibly bizarre gaslighting” opens the door to a world with a high rate of disease and chronic health conditions, for those who aren’t wealthy, according to a report from The Guardian.
With this backdrop in mind, accurate and current data will be even more essential. However, Trump’s deep cuts bring the dismantling of entire data collection efforts. As Politico details, programs that tracked cancer rates in firefighters, HIV and syphilis transmission during pregnancy, and outbreaks of drug-resistant infections are the latest victims of the Trump administration’s vengeful wrecking ball.
As with just about everything Trump does, this move also comes cloaked in hypocrisy and deception. RFK Jr. has promised “radical transparency” at HHS and has insisted that Americans will make better health choices with access to more data. However, as several axed federal employees told Politico, the job cuts mean that even if states collect data, there will be no one left to compile and publicize it.
The harmful absence of data collection also makes it easy for the Trump administration to escape criticism about the impact of its policies. Plus, without being able to tell what’s working and what’s wasteful, health problems will rise. In the meantime, “efficiency,” a word that Trump loves to throw around as a lame excuse while he destroys America, becomes a growing farce. Without continued robust data collection and analysis efforts, everyone suffers as the United States falls behind.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month