Vote for Infectious Laughter, Not Viruses and Bacteria

 

Vote for Infectious Laughter, Not Viruses and Bacteria

Healthcare in the United States is expendable at all levels under the MAGA anti-science, anti-healthcare spending (the old mislabeled “creeping socialism” label) and anti-higher learning and research “elitism” rubric. Access to healthcare in the United States in rural red states is horrible as life expectancies in those states illustrate. Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and even Texas (notwithstanding cities like Houston, which has some of the best teaching hospitals and research centers in the country) hover near the bottom of metrics relating to healthcare. Reproductive healthcare is vaporizing in red states, as old men attorneys general seek to hunt down residents who have received such care in states that prioritize keeping their populations healthy.

As the Supreme Court ruled on June 27th (Medina vs Planned Parenthood), even where there is government-sponsored healthcare coverage, the states can pick and choose which medical facilities are qualified to provide that care. The upshot in this case is that in South Carolina, as is the how the world works for about a quarter to half of available rural healthcare facilities in red states, even without banned abortion care, is that Planned Parenthood was the only overall screener for all sorts of medical issues, from cancer to colon to coronary testing. Red states are about to cut Planned Parenthood from qualified lists for Medicaid recipients. And with Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” about to slash $800M to $1.1B in relevant Medicaid and SNAP (food stamps) funding, we are going to see small rural hospitals and nursing homes fold in order to fund unneeded tax cuts that will mostly benefit the top earners in the country.

That the pledge “not to touch Medicaid” from Trump and his GOP minions in Congress is now as clear a lie as we have faced in recent politics. Trumpsters are making bald-faced and wildly unsupportable claims that the resultant “growth” will more than make up the cuts to these social programs. Only if the Easter Bunny arrives with a few extra trillion dollars. What is strange is that even diehard Trump supporters who have said they will vote for the bill (like Missouri Senator Josh Hawley) have acknowledged that Medicaid recipients will be devasted by the legislation. Under Trump’s threat of supporting rising GOP primary challengers to Congresspeople who do not vote for his disgusting bill, GOP scoundrels in Congress will hold their noses and vote yes.

One Senator, Thom Tillis (R/NC), who has told the truth about the massive pain about to be inflicted on anyone who depends on Medicaid and SNAP, won’t seek reelection after opposing Trump’s bill. He’d rather step aside than support legislation that would devastate at least 20% of his constituents. “In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species… I look forward to having the pure freedom to call the balls and strikes as I see fit and representing the great people of North Carolina to the best of my ability, said Tillis on June 29th.

Trump immediately upped his threat to “primary out” any Republican in Congress at their next election… if they did not vote to support a bill his core legislative proposal. “It ‘proves there is no space within the Republican Party to dissent over taking healthcare away from 11.8 million people,’ said Lauren French, spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber’s Democratic members.” Associated Press, June 30th.

With a hideous quack, lacking a medical degree, running the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert Kennedy, Jr, a notorious anti-vaxxer who has reconfigured his CDC vaccine advisors to emphasize conspiracy theories over decades of proven medical realities… appointees who still believe that vaccines cause autism and lower IQs. How quickly, so many Americans forget the past, as Laura Ungar, writing for the June 30th AP, describes: “In the time before widespread vaccination, death often came early… Devastating infectious diseases ran rampant in America, killing millions of children and leaving others with lifelong health problems. These illnesses were the main reason why nearly 1 in 5 children in 1900 never made it to their 5th birthday.

“Over the next century, vaccines virtually wiped out long-feared scourges such as polio and measles and drastically reduced the toll of many others. Today, however, some preventable, contagious diseases are making a comeback as vaccine hesitancy — often fed by misinformation — pushes immunization rates down. And well-established vaccines are facing suspicion even from public officials, including the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.

“‘This concern, this hesitancy, these questions about vaccines are a consequence of the great success of the vaccines — because they eliminated the diseases,’ said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. ‘If you’re not familiar with the disease, you don’t respect or even fear it. And therefore you don’t value the vaccine.’…

“Some Americans know the reality of these preventable diseases all too well. For them, news of measles outbreaks and rising whooping cough cases brings back terrible memories of lives forever changed — and a longing to spare others from similar pain… Getting rubella while pregnant… With a mother’s practiced, guiding hand, 80-year-old Janith Farnham helped steer her 60-year-old daughter’s walker through a Sioux Falls art center. They stopped at a painting of a cow wearing a hat….

“Jacque was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which can cause a host of issues including hearing impairment, eye problems, heart defects and intellectual disabilities. There was no vaccine against rubella back then, and Janith contracted the viral illness very early in the pregnancy, when she had up to a 90% chance of giving birth to a baby with the syndrome… Janith recalled knowing ‘things weren’t right’ almost immediately. The baby wouldn’t respond to sounds or look at anything but lights. She didn’t like to be held close. Her tiny heart sounded like it purred — evidence of a problem that required surgery at 4 months old.

“Janith did all she could to help Jacque thrive, sending her to the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind and using skills she honed as a special education teacher. She and other parents of children with the syndrome shared insights in a support group…Meanwhile, the condition kept taking its toll. As a young adult, Jacque developed diabetes, glaucoma and autistic behaviors. Eventually, arthritis set in… Today, Jacque lives in an adult residential home a short drive from Janith’s place. Above her bed is a net overflowing with stuffed animals. On a headboard shelf are photo books Janith created, filled with memories such as birthday parties and trips to Mt. Rushmore.”

Multiply this story a millionfold. But so many more just died, so their stories died with them. Polio is mostly eradicated today, but vaccines invented, tested and deployed with school children eliminated scenes like the above photograph of polio victims confined to iron lung wards, in a California hospital. Maybe, we need to let a lot of people die to allow conspiracy theories to replace the bona fide practice of medicine. 

I’m Peter Dekom, and 007 is a piker’s license to kill; appointing an unqualified hack, without even a medical degree who is implementing conspiracy theories to replace medical reality, to run HHS is much more efficient at culling the American herd… er… human beings who should matter.