“Oh my God.”
The response by Dr. Kavita Patel, a Senior Policy Advisor at Stanford University and Health Policy Advisor to the Biden Administration during the pandemic, upon hearing the news that conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been selected to lead the Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHS) was simply — shock.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Courtesy of NBC News
President-elect Donald Trump told the public that he was going to appoint Kennedy to a role related to health — and when he made the announcement he was laughing, including words about breaking things and blowing up the department.
This is no joke.
Kennedy responded by saying he’d get rid of fluoride in public drinking water, and he wouldn’t take away people’s vaccines “if they want them”. But Kennedy added that he’s going to stop disease research grants for the next eight years (now what’s THAT about?) and “clear out the toxic environment” in agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Just in case readers are not familiar with the 13 operating divisions, 1o health agencies and three human services and 80,000 people of the agencies under the DHS umbrella, these are a few of the important roles they perform:
- The National Institutes of Health
- Funding at the federal level for our state and county public health programs from dental hygiene to community mental health programs, and new parent education.
- Administration for Children & Families which manages human services funding and family support.
- The Food and Drug Administration — which verifies and tests new drug headed to the market, plus safeguards the nation’s food supply.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), responsible for this country’s children’s immunization programs that have halted the spread against diseases such as polio, tetanus, measles, and diphtheria, and dozens of others, including COVID-19 and the H5N1 bird flu that may soon threaten humans.
- The infectious disease research grant programs; this program is responsible for funding the research that allowed us to have a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as we did, saving hundreds of millions of lives.
- Substance abuse and mental health prevention programs– both of which have exploded during the pandemic.
- Medicare — we don’t have to tell you how important this is to this country’s seniors.
- Medicaid — ditto — but for very low income seniors and the disabled.
Kennedy actually was a respected environmental lawyer before he went batty over killing bear cubs and dumping them in New York’s Central Park, announced that he had a brain-eating worm in his brain, and became an anti-vaxer. But having a famous name does not qualify a person to lead the world’s premier health organization.
He is seen by many health experts as someone who is at war with the very agencies he has been nominated to lead.
The announcement of Kennedy is only one of Trump’s cabinet announcements this week. He also nominated Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General (AG) in charge of the department of Justice (DOJ).
Gaetz was facing a criminal investigation report into sex-trafficking charges due to be released by the U.S. House Ethics Committee today. House Speaker Mike Johnson just announced that since Gaetz resigned from the House, he won’t allow it to be published.
His qualification to be AG is apparently being under criminal investigation.
Next, Trump nominated Tulsi Gabbard to lead the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) — A U.S. National Guard Reserve Officer and former U.S. House Representative, she has repeatedly mouthed Russian propaganda.
As CNN reported this week “Like Trump, she has frequently appeared to take positions more favorable to foreign leaders widely considered not just American adversaries, but in some cases, murderers, including the presidents of Syria and Russia.”
We are all supposed to take this seriously. It appears that the goal of these appointments may not be to actually lead these departments, but to destroy them. They’re saying it out loud, and when they tell us what they are going to do — we should believe them.
Trump megaphone Steve Bannon warned the federal government that it would “pay the price for trying to destroy this country” and that as soon as President-elect Donald Trump takes office entire agencies will be “swept out.”
Sense a pattern emerging just one week into Trump’s incumbency?
This should not be a surprise. It is what Project 2025 told us they planned to do. It is all part of breaking down the federal government of the greatest economic and military power in the world, and a not-so-subtle shift of power into the executive branch.
People — even those who voted for Trump — may need to begin to ask “Why?”
Or you could wait until your child gets polio, your parents lose Medicare health insurance, then the next pandemic hits, and with research funding suspended — we are told to just use bleach*.
The people should know that in 1789, the founders grappled with finalizing the Constitution with three branches of government. The legislative branch consisting of the bicameral Congress was Article I — viewed as the most important in representative government. The idea of a chief executive was added along the way, becoming Article 2 . The Judicial branch was supposed to keep ethical tabs, especially on the executive branch. Some irony there.
*In 202o, with the pandemic raging, and millions sick and dying around the world, Trump told the American public during a press conference that injecting bleach might be a good way to avoid catching COVID-19.
