The disastrous dumbing down on science and health is leading us back to the medieval era in human history. We will need a new enlightenment period in the future before we can dig ourselves out of this newly encouraged ignorance. We seem to have a very uneducated group of politicians setting the future of our human existence.
Good God. I recall in childhood, and btw, I got the measles and still recall scratching my body endlessly. My mother related the pandemic of 1917 as so many died, those who caught it had their toes tagged while still alive since they weren’t expected to survive. Now we have the anti vaxxers running the show. I once asked a lifelong friend if she had vaccinated in 2021 and she said, as a MAGA believer, absolutely no and that her baby Jesus would save her if she caught the disease. So of course I wrote a song to her titled, “Vaccine for Veronica “ and when she heard it she screamed at me. Now she is happy there is a song written about her. Go figure. Humans… you can find it by going to YouTube and searching “Catman Bill — Vaccine for Veronica,”
You know, Junior is only four years younger than I … has he forgotten about polio? About leg braces and the iron lung? Does he expect his white skin and “superiority” to keep him immune? Why are these people so afraid of science?
I assume it's about power. Look what a following he had even before T brought him into the fold. (And of course T saw the benefit of his followers and their donations.) To oppose science is to stick your finger in the eye of people better educated that you are. Of course, in Junior's case, he's flirted with addiction, and both his sister and his cousin warned us he was trouble. And let's not forget that during the Covid pandemic, the president flouted public health precautions, endangering the Secret Service charged with protecting him.
You hit it right. It’s all and only about power as well as money. In his case, power. He probably likens himself to his father and uncles in some twisted fashion. And I recall during T I every appointment he made was more ridicules than the previous with no understanding of capacity to administrate. That old alleged statement of Benjamin Franklin to the woman in front of Constitution Hall about the kind of government rings so true today. The fragile Republic we have lost. Can we get it back? I’m not too sanguine but that doesn’t diminish the struggle. I will do everything in my power. We now have well funded federal thugs. It’s the expected playbook of a tyrant. Molesting immigrants is only the beginning. They will soon go after anyone. And that’s when I will resist in an extreme manner.
I am betting he is fully vaccinated. I read in several places all his kids were vaccinated. So as far was I am concerned not only is he a liar and fraud I would call him a hypocrite. He just wants money and attention like all the other deplorables in this administration
He is a few years older than me, so he probably had the measles, mumps, & chicken pox. There was no MMR vaccine or chickenpox vaccine when we were children. I remember very well having the chicken pox and the measles. I was very sick and I missed at least a week of school because of the measles. I cannot begin to imagine a parent just foregoing vaccines for their children, unless the child has some kind of physical reason that would allow the vaccine to be detrimental to their health. My children received the available childhood vaccines (chicken pox vaccine wasn't yet available) and their children have also received theirs.
Teri, in this case, like calls to like and the whole bundle or basket of deplorables share some important characteristics with the guy at the top, the willingness to cheat, lie, gaslight, defraud, hurt anyone who crosses them, and lie and cheat some more. None of them is a decent human being, although if you ask them they all think they are just wonderful! They are quite good at fooling themselves as well as their cult members.
Here is a satire I wrote in 2018 ("Donald's Vanity Tantrums") during the first round. It all has come to pass. Hum... I can't tell you to enjoy it but my predictions have come to pass.
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Some of those politicians are very uneducated, MTG & Lauren Bobert, Tommy Tuberville pop to mind immediately. But I'm thinking the a good portion are not uneducated they are just
COWARDS. PERIOD! They've created a mess at the top of government & at their local constituent level & they won't do a damn thing about because they are terrified of what they created! So the rest of us get to suffer because they have no backbones whatsoever!
Sen. Cassidy knew EXACTLY who he voted to confirm as head of HHS, knew EXACTLY the types of policies that would be enacted, and knew EXACTLY the consequences both to public health and to members of the public directly affected by these lunatic programs.
Yet, Sen. Cassidy, a trained physician, capitulated to tRump and cast his vote for America's Trofim Lysenko, RFK, Jr.
I think most of them were crystal clear that the Trump picks— RFK JR and the rest were not competent to do their jobs. What baffles me is that after all that has already happened nearly all Republicans in Congress would rather capitulate than fight for what they know is right, all to protect their jobs? Why would they want to keep a job if it meant harming their constituents, and their own families ultimately and specifically around health matters. It’s insane.
I’m convinced that it’s laziness pure and simple: Why think when you can just let someone else do the “thinking”. Bit like Trump? Thinking? Hey, buddy, I got his gold watch I’m selling.
Any person elected to off ice has to have an education and knowledge of government which should require at the very least a bachelors degree.This running for office as someone off the street is just stupid. I know there are some that are intelligent w/out the bachelors, so why not have a test that is given and you have to know the basics. Medical people even home health aid and aids in the hospital have to pass a test . Firefighters have exams they take. You have to take test to drive. so government people elected to office should be tested for their knowledge.
All that you said is spot on. I would add that our politicians are nihilists who want to tear down and have zero interest in the common good. The self destructive human condition has reared its ugly head. We all grow and improve together or die together.
"We seem to have a very uneducated group of politicians setting the future of our human existence" - seems to be too mild for that bunch of highly inept, uneducated and often incredibly unskilled and unexperienced cabinet members - just like their 'boss'.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
Allow me to react as the cynical sarcast that I am (or am I a sarcastic cynic?)
I feel that for this kennedy the junior fellow it is finally the time that he'll earn a buck or two in this whole vaccination affair.
The fellow has been heavily invested in a lot of leech farms and now finaly is at the helms of the department that will force every one to use a leech or two a day....
Because as we all know, the old saying says:
"A leech or two a day keeps the doctor away!"
(Side note to people "who do their own research": yes I know that leeches do have a place in modern medicine as they can help to speed up healing of big flesh wounds by preventing putrefaction due to excessive pile up of blood cloths..... here I'm referring to the use of leeches to heal a cold, a broken finger, a blocked ear....... cancer?)
The biggest problem was trump making people think that public health directives were somehow an assault on First Amendment rights. These are two distinctly different legal rights issues that trump used to create divisiveness and needlessly extend the pandemic.
One million Americans died because of trump’s incompetence. Inexcusable.
from the beginning Trump and is posse of villains worked to convince Americans that everyone in government was against them or corrupt -- seeding deep mistrust about our most important institutions. And then -- surprise, surprise -- they took over and are the ones who are against Americans and endlessly corrupt. Regan and others started it by proclaiming that Govt is the problem, not the solution.
The ground Reagan seeded was plowed and fertilized for years by right wing narratives including McCarthy’s red baiting, John Birchers’ campaign against fluoridated public water supplies, and the tobacco industry’s fight to conceal its role in lung cancer, among others…all advancing the idea of hidden government agendas, secret traitors, and the assault on individual liberty. All skillfully designed messaging campaigns that have undermined critical thought and the idea of “the greater good of society as a whole” and encouraged skepticism of government expertise.
it was easy for them because the billionis have taken too much, leaving the nots with very little. As we know, gov has been the saviour of many americans...most of them trump voters
In the comment I posted above I mentioned that I wrote a scathing letter to him right after his vote. Not being one of his constituents I rec;d no reply it made me feel good to write the letter!
The Texas DHHS updates it measles infection data on Tuesdays:
Per DSHS ,"98% of the patients have been hospitalized "
Per DSHS, "723 measles cases have been confirmed since late January" 2025.
Per DSHS, LAMAR COUNTY has been "designated an outbreak county".
*****
Step back for a moment & let's look ay a much broader an effective individual patient health as practiced by major modern health institutions such as U.C.S.F. Health & other major health institutions.
The era of going to your "family practice doctor" once a year has been replaced by sophisticated genetic analysis of an individual and.or groups' disease risks.
Given my EURO genetic links, UCSF was able to calculate with a 70% probabiltiy my specific oncology risk.
Knowing specifically what to look for I was put on a "surveillance" program to monitor certain suspect cells. Once located no panic . My targeted cells were "slow growers". Treatment protocol with regular monitoring was established. Successful surgical intervention came 3 years down the road.
Here now to engage on Civil Discourse, smile & love my Grandkids, :---)
I know people who were sure prayer could protect or cure them of Covid. Several drove past their churches on the way to the small rural hospital where the professional medical advice they had rejected was suddenly needed to save them. At one time during the pandemic, a minister was unable to conduct funerals for willing victims of Covid because he was at home with Covid. Go figure.
The U.S. is the ONLY wealthy, developed country in the world without Universal Healthcare. That is despicable. And it’s also stupid. Universal Healthcare ultimately costs less than the current American system. Once the healthcare focus shifts to preventive care & immediate care, and once you remove the corporate greed from the healthcare system, overall costs to the government actually go DOWN!
Republicans are the reason for this stupidity, so Democrats should put Medicare For All near the top of policy priorities going forward!
Joyce, thank you for this discussion on public health - it’s critical to this country remaining a global leader! We appreciate you! 🥹
The problem, of course, is that universal healthcare doesn't generate the profit margins for the medical and insurance professions that our current system does. Doctors earn an average of $300,000 a year and that is across the entire country including states with much lower costs of living. Specialists earn an average of $500,000+ and extreme specialities like neurosurgery, the average can exceed $1,000,000. Nurses earn (ACROSS THE US) an average of $92,000/year. A universal healthcare system would lower those averages significantly. It would effect the insurance industry to an even greater level, as commissions on medical insurance would drop precipitously.
But a universal system will never be put into place while the country is run by MAGAts.
Many physicians graduate medical school several hundred thousand dollars in debt.( advanced education is free or lower cost in many countries with universal healthcare) Those in subspecialties delay income for many years in training. You still want some of the best and the brightest to choose medicine as a career. My family practice was 11 years of post high school training. I would love to see the money that is currently channelled into insurance companies' bloated bureaucracies and multimillion dollar salaries for executives directed into care for all. The reimbursement offered through medicare alone would bankrupt many hospitals and medical practices. Not sure what the answer is, but there has to be something better than what we have now.
Many of the physicians we have here in Baghdad By the Sea are displaced Canadians here to make the big buck. My wife and I have both Medicare A&B plus federral BC/BS. We are patients in a university health systerm, so our docs don't have to worrry about dealing with ins and outs of insurance, whereas many docs at other medical practices spend as much time administering to insurance paperwork than they do to patients.
The AMA used to be opposed to Medicare for all but they're coming around.
The entities that most benefit most from Medicare for all if it were accompanied with elimination of the collateral source rule in litigation, which could make the cost of most insurance, like workers' comp, Medicare Part B, and PI drop like a rock, is manufacturing. The cost to manufacture a car in Windsor, Ontario is less than the same in Detroit, 5 minutes away due to the exposure to medical expenses.
Consider the cost of being a high earning physician includes malpractice insurance. Google says medical malpractice insurance premiums in Florida vary significantly depending on factors like specialty, location, and experience, but generally, they are higher than in many other states. For example, some OB/GYNs in Baghdad By the Sea can face premiums exceeding $226,000 annually.
According to Google, although the median settlement payout is about $250,000, the average payout for medical malpractice or negligence claims in the United States is approximately $242,000. For cases that go to trial and extend all the way to a jury verdict, the average payout to the plaintiff is right around $1 million.
Florida caps contingency fees for medical malpractice cases at 30 percent of the first $250,000 recovered and 10 percent of any amount above that.
My doctors are virtually all on staff at UM. University of Miami (UM) typically provides medical malpractice insurance coverage for physicians employed by the university. This coverage is part of the benefits package offered to residents and other employed physicians at the Miami Miller School of Medicine. UM's risk management department administers this program, which includes coverage for defense costs and payments of claims resulting from patient injury arising from the rendering of or failure to render professional services.
When I practiced law, many years ago, hospitals knew via incident reports of pending claims, most which were never filed. I don't know this as a fact, but hiospitals are rated for insurance risk and the individual physicians who are on staff or are affiliates are also. This stuff is not available to the public.
Scope of Coverage:
The coverage at UM extends to employees, students, volunteers, and others acting within the scope of their university duties.
The cost of coverage at some other competing facilities are huge.
Under universal healthcare, the entire landscape would need to change dramatically, yes! Every other advanced country has this - it’s long past time the U.S. did as well! Vote Dem 2026!! 👍
I have an 8 month old grandson, and am awaiting the birth of another grandchild. My children live in blue states, but who knows how long vaccines will be available, or if available, covered by insurance? I am, in short, terrified. Elections matter.
As a retired pediatrician who trained before the HiB vaccine appeared, every night that I was on call and a sick infant came in, it was a fire drill of doing septic workups and starting them on meds before results came back. Kids need to be immunized, plain and simple.
My husband and I just got our 7th booster. We are wondering if there will be an 8th. I asked my doctor. He’s also concerned that they may soon be unavailable. Fortunately he stays informed through World Health Organization, so at least we can trust his advice.
Linda – Smart, you are! Dr O talks about a project CIDRAP started, their Vaccine Integrity Project. The concern is that the way MAGA RFK Jr will get vaccine use down is to get insurance to NOT cover many vaccines. It is my understanding that CIDRAP hopes that their expert guidance will convince health insurers that paying for vaccines will help their bottom line when they don’t have to pay for the diseases the vaccines help prevent!
“CIDRAP's Vaccine Integrity Project is an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the U.S. so that it remains grounded in the best available science, free from external influence, and focused on optimizing protection of individuals, families, and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases. Over the coming months, facilitated sessions will be held to gather critical feedback to understand what may be needed to ensure the integrity of the U.S. vaccine system, including vaccine evaluations and clinical guidelines based on rigorous and timely reviews. The Vaccine Integrity Project is supported by an unrestricted gift from Alumbra, a foundation established by philanthropist Christy Walton.”
As a historian, I am aware of the sharp restrictions that government used to put on people in times of epidemics.
During the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia, neighboring New York and Baltimore quarantined refugees and shipments from Philadelphia, effectively forbidding their entry.
In 1940, the City of New York sent medical personnel door to door to enforce vaccination against smallpox which had surfaced again in the city.
Modern day conservatives are not aware of how forceful local governments could be on issues of public health.
I was born in the New York City area on Long Island & my Mom would tell me stories about people streaming out of the city to try to protect their children from polio. I was fortunate that I did not get that dreaded disease. I did have all the childhood diseases. When I had measles I had stars in my eyes at time but fortunately no long term affectsl When I had the mumps my fever was so high that I got out of bed & my parents found me trying to climb the walls! Again no long term affects. I am very grateful that I survived my childhood & was delighted when more & more vaccines came on line.
This "me first" "personal liberty" shit is wrong. All these christians that are running around telling everybody we need to have the Ten Commandments in school & creationism should be given equal time in biology class should take some time to read & digest the Golden Rule & the Beatitudes. And this is a reminder from an atheist! If I know about them then these other heretics should damn well know about them!
Thanks for reminding us of one other factor in the anti-vax nonsense: so few people alive today remember the dread of diseases that have long been banished. But I'm old, and I do remember. My mother's sister died of diphtheria; her brother died of strep that damaged his heart; one of my friend's children was permanently brain-damaged by encephalitis following chicken pox; I myself had all the childhood diseases, and almost died of scarlet fever. Humans have very short memories and no imagination -- but those were not fun times. I could not be more grateful for the vaccines that spare us from the diseases that once killed at least one in five of all live-born children before they were five years old.
These idiotic anti-vaxxers should be forced to visit old graveyards and see the graves of children who died ages 5 and younger prior to the advent of vaccination. That should drive home the impact of vaccination in a graphic way that even they could understand.
They don't care. They are too busy worshiping their Grand Idea that Vaccines Are Evil, and nothing else matters, including the health and lives of themselves or their own children. They do not care.
Atheists certainly have a role to play in insisting that cult Christianists are abandoning the normal precepts of morality in their acceptance of Trump-oriented pronouncements by charismatic preachers
I remember my dad quickly taking my sister and me to the jr. High school where the county health department was giving out polio vaccines on sugar cubes. That was an easy and very effective way to get children protected. I had German measles (rubella) as a kid and those memories of misery still stick with me.
Modern-day conservatives (or at least the cohort that now is ruling the country) have no respect for public health, apparently elevating personal liberty and particularly religiously influenced choices above public health obligations. Their "feelings" are apparently to be given higher respect than the public welfare. Even in terms of traditional Christian religious teachings they are wrong.
Thank you for this excellent piece. I retired from a 40-year career in public health and health behavior research a couple of years ago, and I am devastated and appalled by Trump and Kennedy are doing.
There are two fundamental paradoxes in epidemiology:
1) When infectious disease prevention works, the measures seem overbearing and/or unnecessary.
2) When a disease is virtually eradicated, cultural memory of its horrors evaporates. Often what remains is a highly distorted, almost romanticized recollection…”Oh, it wasn’t so bad.”
Yes, it absolutely was that bad.
I entered med school in 1972.
Back then, in the U.S. thousands of children younger than age 3 died or were severely damaged every year by a bacterium called H. flu Type B (NOT to be confused with Influenza, which is a virus). HIB caused crippling joint infections. It caused facial infections that rendered a child unrecognizable. It caused meningitis that usually killed – and if the child were lucky and lived, perhaps only partial or severe hearing and cognitive impairment. It was – horrible.
Every Pediatric office in the country had stacks of spinal tap trays – and every Pediatrician did several spinal taps each year. We would see a 9 - or 12 - or 15-month-old baby who presented with signs of meningitis, would do the spinal tap, would give I.V. antibiotics and then we would rush the baby to the hospital in the hope that we had intervened in time. Sometimes the baby lived – often, not.
The HIB vaccine came out in 1983 with a refined version several years later.
I remember looking at my colleagues in the early 90’s in astonishment. We whispered to each other in joy and amazement – “It’s gone”. It had taken less than 10 years.
Now, you will never see a spinal tap tray in a Pediatrician’s office – and many Pediatricians haven’t done one since they left training.
That’s how successful that vaccine was. It was a miracle.
This was the experience for every single cohort of clinicians in the twentieth century. Every generation saw the miracle happen.
For those in the 1920’s lockjaw AND diphtheria were stopped.
In the 1940’s it was whooping cough that went away.
In the 1950’s it was polio. Iron lungs disappeared.
In the 1960’s it was measles.
In the 70’s it was german measles. Babies no longer were born with heart defects, deafness or other malformations - and smallpox was actually eradicated from the globe!
In the 80’s it was H. flu.
One hundred and twenty years ago, nearly half of all children died by age 6. Now? Childhood death is truly unusual - and the single largest cause? It's not infection. It's guns.
The unspeakable tragedy is that the U.S. stands alone in such denial.
The world will watch while the United States has reborn epidemics of childhood plagues – and it will shake its collective head while in the U.S. science denial runs amok.
One also suspects that threats, maybe vague, maybe very specific, were made as well. Certainly at a minimum the Trump machine threatens to "primary" even conservative Republican candidates at their next primary election.
I imagine threats to the physical safety of politicians and their families played a role. If we ever get through this, maybe people will speak up about it afterwards.
Fear mostly. Fear of being primaried, fear of their constituents rejecting them because they defied dear leader, fear of the MAGA attack dogs, even fear for their families! Ridiculous isn’t it!
Trump, RFK Jr and other MAGA are killing public health which will result in increased mortality and morbidity not only in the US but worldwide. Politicians like RFK have no business making health decisions.
We are being played for fools, the only country in the world where heathcare is not a human right. You are scammed day-in and day-out by insurance companies and big pharma. Insurance premiums paid monthly only for you to see Claim Denied. Drug costs that are 2-3 times the cost for the same drug in the next country. It is carnage on the American stage. You accept all that. ?????? https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/health-inequity?r=3m1bs
Yes, you are absolutely right. People need to remember the case of typhoid Mary in New York City. History of Medicine should be a required course for every undergraduate, and included in history courses in high school.
The disastrous dumbing down on science and health is leading us back to the medieval era in human history. We will need a new enlightenment period in the future before we can dig ourselves out of this newly encouraged ignorance. We seem to have a very uneducated group of politicians setting the future of our human existence.
Agreed. And this “encouraged ignorance - nice phrase! - is also compounded by the right’s desire to stifle education with simplistic propaganda.
Good God. I recall in childhood, and btw, I got the measles and still recall scratching my body endlessly. My mother related the pandemic of 1917 as so many died, those who caught it had their toes tagged while still alive since they weren’t expected to survive. Now we have the anti vaxxers running the show. I once asked a lifelong friend if she had vaccinated in 2021 and she said, as a MAGA believer, absolutely no and that her baby Jesus would save her if she caught the disease. So of course I wrote a song to her titled, “Vaccine for Veronica “ and when she heard it she screamed at me. Now she is happy there is a song written about her. Go figure. Humans… you can find it by going to YouTube and searching “Catman Bill — Vaccine for Veronica,”
You know, Junior is only four years younger than I … has he forgotten about polio? About leg braces and the iron lung? Does he expect his white skin and “superiority” to keep him immune? Why are these people so afraid of science?
I assume it's about power. Look what a following he had even before T brought him into the fold. (And of course T saw the benefit of his followers and their donations.) To oppose science is to stick your finger in the eye of people better educated that you are. Of course, in Junior's case, he's flirted with addiction, and both his sister and his cousin warned us he was trouble. And let's not forget that during the Covid pandemic, the president flouted public health precautions, endangering the Secret Service charged with protecting him.
You hit it right. It’s all and only about power as well as money. In his case, power. He probably likens himself to his father and uncles in some twisted fashion. And I recall during T I every appointment he made was more ridicules than the previous with no understanding of capacity to administrate. That old alleged statement of Benjamin Franklin to the woman in front of Constitution Hall about the kind of government rings so true today. The fragile Republic we have lost. Can we get it back? I’m not too sanguine but that doesn’t diminish the struggle. I will do everything in my power. We now have well funded federal thugs. It’s the expected playbook of a tyrant. Molesting immigrants is only the beginning. They will soon go after anyone. And that’s when I will resist in an extreme manner.
Power … AND a chance to “best” the reputation of his father … who was adored.
David, you are right. No one is ever going to honor RFK,Jr. except momentarily Trump who will instantly forget who he is. UGH!!
I am betting he is fully vaccinated. I read in several places all his kids were vaccinated. So as far was I am concerned not only is he a liar and fraud I would call him a hypocrite. He just wants money and attention like all the other deplorables in this administration
He is a few years older than me, so he probably had the measles, mumps, & chicken pox. There was no MMR vaccine or chickenpox vaccine when we were children. I remember very well having the chicken pox and the measles. I was very sick and I missed at least a week of school because of the measles. I cannot begin to imagine a parent just foregoing vaccines for their children, unless the child has some kind of physical reason that would allow the vaccine to be detrimental to their health. My children received the available childhood vaccines (chicken pox vaccine wasn't yet available) and their children have also received theirs.
minded too.
Teri, in this case, like calls to like and the whole bundle or basket of deplorables share some important characteristics with the guy at the top, the willingness to cheat, lie, gaslight, defraud, hurt anyone who crosses them, and lie and cheat some more. None of them is a decent human being, although if you ask them they all think they are just wonderful! They are quite good at fooling themselves as well as their cult members.
So true!
You’re on! I’m betting my shares in the soon-to-be glorious “Fight, Fight, Fight” perfume for patriots.
He does not care.
That's the bottom line. Money and power is all that matters
Here is a satire I wrote in 2018 ("Donald's Vanity Tantrums") during the first round. It all has come to pass. Hum... I can't tell you to enjoy it but my predictions have come to pass.
A Fireside Chat
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt began a series of informal radio chats to the American public during a turbulent time in the 1930s. The radio back then was to communicating as Twitter is today. Here is an excerpt:
“My fellow Americans, it is whispered by some that only by abandoning our freedom, our ideals, our way of life, can we rebuild our defenses adequately, can we match the strength of the aggressors. …I do not share these fears.”
Trump demands a quaint, televised, fireside chat to compete with FDR. Here is a sneak preview:
“My friends, Hillary Clinton will never see the inside of the White House again as long as I live.
“You people love me so much that I know you want to keep me as your president for life. The Constitution now allows this extended appointment of the executive branch. Our blessed homeland needs me to lead it. I have authorized The Enabling Act, borrowed from German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s proposal to restrict powers of the Reichstag in 1933. His SS troops made legislators give up their civil liberties and transfer state powers to the Reich government. I’m pleased to tell you that the Democrats will sign away their legislative powers while my ICE agents surround the House of Representatives. I have the power to dissolve Congress and allow my Cabinet to pass much needed laws to Make America Great Again. And I pledge to you that all fake impeachment activity to convict me has ended.
“I also pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country. And we will remove all undocumented immigrants that are poisoning the blood of our country. And we will remove the portrait of African-born Barack Hussein Obama from the White House wall.
“My first act tomorrow will be to have House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Shiftless Adam Schiff picked up for questioning to ascertain their patriotism for the United States.
“I know I’ve been accused of a quid pro quo with Ukraine. There is nothing wrong with finding the truth about liars and cheats like Slow Joe Biden. And there’s nothing wrong asking a nation to help with uncovering wrongdoing by a corrupt man. As your President for Life, I will always tell you the truth. When I make a promise to you, I keep it.
“This concludes the first of my fireside chats. I can’t wait to tell you what I have in store for other scum Trump haters.”
Some of those politicians are very uneducated, MTG & Lauren Bobert, Tommy Tuberville pop to mind immediately. But I'm thinking the a good portion are not uneducated they are just
COWARDS. PERIOD! They've created a mess at the top of government & at their local constituent level & they won't do a damn thing about because they are terrified of what they created! So the rest of us get to suffer because they have no backbones whatsoever!
Sen. Cassidy knew EXACTLY who he voted to confirm as head of HHS, knew EXACTLY the types of policies that would be enacted, and knew EXACTLY the consequences both to public health and to members of the public directly affected by these lunatic programs.
Yet, Sen. Cassidy, a trained physician, capitulated to tRump and cast his vote for America's Trofim Lysenko, RFK, Jr.
I guess he’s afraid of losing a “job” where thinking is ill-advised.
well sure thing no one is going to hire him as a doctor.....
We can only hope
Still, there’s always employment in the booming birthday clown industry—he’d fit right in.
I think most of them were crystal clear that the Trump picks— RFK JR and the rest were not competent to do their jobs. What baffles me is that after all that has already happened nearly all Republicans in Congress would rather capitulate than fight for what they know is right, all to protect their jobs? Why would they want to keep a job if it meant harming their constituents, and their own families ultimately and specifically around health matters. It’s insane.
I’m convinced that it’s laziness pure and simple: Why think when you can just let someone else do the “thinking”. Bit like Trump? Thinking? Hey, buddy, I got his gold watch I’m selling.
Any person elected to off ice has to have an education and knowledge of government which should require at the very least a bachelors degree.This running for office as someone off the street is just stupid. I know there are some that are intelligent w/out the bachelors, so why not have a test that is given and you have to know the basics. Medical people even home health aid and aids in the hospital have to pass a test . Firefighters have exams they take. You have to take test to drive. so government people elected to office should be tested for their knowledge.
All that you said is spot on. I would add that our politicians are nihilists who want to tear down and have zero interest in the common good. The self destructive human condition has reared its ugly head. We all grow and improve together or die together.
Not "our politicians" - tRump politicians. Although I do think the Dems could try harder...
Ostrich politics.
Nihilists, perhaps ... but also for the money (donors, the NRA, free health insurance, the spotlight).
"We seem to have a very uneducated group of politicians setting the future of our human existence" - seems to be too mild for that bunch of highly inept, uneducated and often incredibly unskilled and unexperienced cabinet members - just like their 'boss'.
“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”
― Isaac Asimov
Allow me to react as the cynical sarcast that I am (or am I a sarcastic cynic?)
I feel that for this kennedy the junior fellow it is finally the time that he'll earn a buck or two in this whole vaccination affair.
The fellow has been heavily invested in a lot of leech farms and now finaly is at the helms of the department that will force every one to use a leech or two a day....
Because as we all know, the old saying says:
"A leech or two a day keeps the doctor away!"
(Side note to people "who do their own research": yes I know that leeches do have a place in modern medicine as they can help to speed up healing of big flesh wounds by preventing putrefaction due to excessive pile up of blood cloths..... here I'm referring to the use of leeches to heal a cold, a broken finger, a blocked ear....... cancer?)
Or as the ancients say, “Better leech than bleach.”
Yikes! These are the types of comments that should form the MAGA legacy, and a legacy of demise it will be!!
My term for this administration is The Idiotocracy.
There is also the same problem with institutional provocation of fear, in the way that fringe media promotes falsehoods.
I hear the gamut,from educated skepticism to angry defense of nonsense.
I wonder if Senator Cassidy has lost any sleep over his vote.
Politics won out over science and common sense.
Cassidy has broken his Hippocratic Oath- Above all, do no harm.
that's exactly what I wrote in my letter to him right after he voted to confirm RFK Jr.
Well, perhaps his license to practice should be taken away then.
maybe it already has been...and then he ran for congress
and ethics.
The biggest problem was trump making people think that public health directives were somehow an assault on First Amendment rights. These are two distinctly different legal rights issues that trump used to create divisiveness and needlessly extend the pandemic.
One million Americans died because of trump’s incompetence. Inexcusable.
from the beginning Trump and is posse of villains worked to convince Americans that everyone in government was against them or corrupt -- seeding deep mistrust about our most important institutions. And then -- surprise, surprise -- they took over and are the ones who are against Americans and endlessly corrupt. Regan and others started it by proclaiming that Govt is the problem, not the solution.
Yep. Right out of the Fascist handbook. Goose step by goose step.
The ground Reagan seeded was plowed and fertilized for years by right wing narratives including McCarthy’s red baiting, John Birchers’ campaign against fluoridated public water supplies, and the tobacco industry’s fight to conceal its role in lung cancer, among others…all advancing the idea of hidden government agendas, secret traitors, and the assault on individual liberty. All skillfully designed messaging campaigns that have undermined critical thought and the idea of “the greater good of society as a whole” and encouraged skepticism of government expertise.
it was easy for them because the billionis have taken too much, leaving the nots with very little. As we know, gov has been the saviour of many americans...most of them trump voters
less trump voters, just sayin'
In the comment I posted above I mentioned that I wrote a scathing letter to him right after his vote. Not being one of his constituents I rec;d no reply it made me feel good to write the letter!
Do you think his constituents would have received a reply if they had made the same argument?
The Texas DHHS updates it measles infection data on Tuesdays:
Per DSHS ,"98% of the patients have been hospitalized "
Per DSHS, "723 measles cases have been confirmed since late January" 2025.
Per DSHS, LAMAR COUNTY has been "designated an outbreak county".
*****
Step back for a moment & let's look ay a much broader an effective individual patient health as practiced by major modern health institutions such as U.C.S.F. Health & other major health institutions.
The era of going to your "family practice doctor" once a year has been replaced by sophisticated genetic analysis of an individual and.or groups' disease risks.
Given my EURO genetic links, UCSF was able to calculate with a 70% probabiltiy my specific oncology risk.
Knowing specifically what to look for I was put on a "surveillance" program to monitor certain suspect cells. Once located no panic . My targeted cells were "slow growers". Treatment protocol with regular monitoring was established. Successful surgical intervention came 3 years down the road.
Here now to engage on Civil Discourse, smile & love my Grandkids, :---)
I know people who were sure prayer could protect or cure them of Covid. Several drove past their churches on the way to the small rural hospital where the professional medical advice they had rejected was suddenly needed to save them. At one time during the pandemic, a minister was unable to conduct funerals for willing victims of Covid because he was at home with Covid. Go figure.
he looked very sheepish when he entered the chamber that day...I knew he was going to vote for wormbrain and he knew he was wrong to do it
The U.S. is the ONLY wealthy, developed country in the world without Universal Healthcare. That is despicable. And it’s also stupid. Universal Healthcare ultimately costs less than the current American system. Once the healthcare focus shifts to preventive care & immediate care, and once you remove the corporate greed from the healthcare system, overall costs to the government actually go DOWN!
Republicans are the reason for this stupidity, so Democrats should put Medicare For All near the top of policy priorities going forward!
Joyce, thank you for this discussion on public health - it’s critical to this country remaining a global leader! We appreciate you! 🥹
The problem, of course, is that universal healthcare doesn't generate the profit margins for the medical and insurance professions that our current system does. Doctors earn an average of $300,000 a year and that is across the entire country including states with much lower costs of living. Specialists earn an average of $500,000+ and extreme specialities like neurosurgery, the average can exceed $1,000,000. Nurses earn (ACROSS THE US) an average of $92,000/year. A universal healthcare system would lower those averages significantly. It would effect the insurance industry to an even greater level, as commissions on medical insurance would drop precipitously.
But a universal system will never be put into place while the country is run by MAGAts.
Vote Dem, 2026!
Many physicians graduate medical school several hundred thousand dollars in debt.( advanced education is free or lower cost in many countries with universal healthcare) Those in subspecialties delay income for many years in training. You still want some of the best and the brightest to choose medicine as a career. My family practice was 11 years of post high school training. I would love to see the money that is currently channelled into insurance companies' bloated bureaucracies and multimillion dollar salaries for executives directed into care for all. The reimbursement offered through medicare alone would bankrupt many hospitals and medical practices. Not sure what the answer is, but there has to be something better than what we have now.
Many of the physicians we have here in Baghdad By the Sea are displaced Canadians here to make the big buck. My wife and I have both Medicare A&B plus federral BC/BS. We are patients in a university health systerm, so our docs don't have to worrry about dealing with ins and outs of insurance, whereas many docs at other medical practices spend as much time administering to insurance paperwork than they do to patients.
The AMA used to be opposed to Medicare for all but they're coming around.
The entities that most benefit most from Medicare for all if it were accompanied with elimination of the collateral source rule in litigation, which could make the cost of most insurance, like workers' comp, Medicare Part B, and PI drop like a rock, is manufacturing. The cost to manufacture a car in Windsor, Ontario is less than the same in Detroit, 5 minutes away due to the exposure to medical expenses.
Consider the cost of being a high earning physician includes malpractice insurance. Google says medical malpractice insurance premiums in Florida vary significantly depending on factors like specialty, location, and experience, but generally, they are higher than in many other states. For example, some OB/GYNs in Baghdad By the Sea can face premiums exceeding $226,000 annually.
According to Google, although the median settlement payout is about $250,000, the average payout for medical malpractice or negligence claims in the United States is approximately $242,000. For cases that go to trial and extend all the way to a jury verdict, the average payout to the plaintiff is right around $1 million.
Florida caps contingency fees for medical malpractice cases at 30 percent of the first $250,000 recovered and 10 percent of any amount above that.
My doctors are virtually all on staff at UM. University of Miami (UM) typically provides medical malpractice insurance coverage for physicians employed by the university. This coverage is part of the benefits package offered to residents and other employed physicians at the Miami Miller School of Medicine. UM's risk management department administers this program, which includes coverage for defense costs and payments of claims resulting from patient injury arising from the rendering of or failure to render professional services.
When I practiced law, many years ago, hospitals knew via incident reports of pending claims, most which were never filed. I don't know this as a fact, but hiospitals are rated for insurance risk and the individual physicians who are on staff or are affiliates are also. This stuff is not available to the public.
Scope of Coverage:
The coverage at UM extends to employees, students, volunteers, and others acting within the scope of their university duties.
The cost of coverage at some other competing facilities are huge.
Under universal healthcare, the entire landscape would need to change dramatically, yes! Every other advanced country has this - it’s long past time the U.S. did as well! Vote Dem 2026!! 👍
I have an 8 month old grandson, and am awaiting the birth of another grandchild. My children live in blue states, but who knows how long vaccines will be available, or if available, covered by insurance? I am, in short, terrified. Elections matter.
I'm with you - we have 2 granddaughters - one is 3 and one is 4 months. We're all in NYC, which is very very blue ... but I still worry.
Death cult. I'm a biologist. These people are insane.
This is almost a play on words, but I am so sick of stupid people.
It’s no play on words if no one is willing to listen … or, like Trump himself, understand.
and WHY do they manage to get in charge ???
As a retired pediatrician who trained before the HiB vaccine appeared, every night that I was on call and a sick infant came in, it was a fire drill of doing septic workups and starting them on meds before results came back. Kids need to be immunized, plain and simple.
Stephen G Rosenbaum MD
Joyce - Since COVID I have religiously (science is MY religion) listened to Dr Osterholm from the U of MN's Osterholm update. Here's a link to the latest episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/osterholm-update/id1504360345?i=1000716858553
I believe you will find him a valuable source on this subject. This latest episode may also make you cry.
My other go to source is Katelyn Jetilina's Your Local Epidemiologist. https://open.substack.com/pub/yourlocalepidemiologist/p/its-not-just-about-measles
Just got another COVID booster. Not at all sure what will be available in September with RFK Jr's nut jobs at the controls.
My husband and I just got our 7th booster. We are wondering if there will be an 8th. I asked my doctor. He’s also concerned that they may soon be unavailable. Fortunately he stays informed through World Health Organization, so at least we can trust his advice.
Linda – Smart, you are! Dr O talks about a project CIDRAP started, their Vaccine Integrity Project. The concern is that the way MAGA RFK Jr will get vaccine use down is to get insurance to NOT cover many vaccines. It is my understanding that CIDRAP hopes that their expert guidance will convince health insurers that paying for vaccines will help their bottom line when they don’t have to pay for the diseases the vaccines help prevent!
“CIDRAP's Vaccine Integrity Project is an initiative dedicated to safeguarding vaccine use in the U.S. so that it remains grounded in the best available science, free from external influence, and focused on optimizing protection of individuals, families, and communities against vaccine-preventable diseases. Over the coming months, facilitated sessions will be held to gather critical feedback to understand what may be needed to ensure the integrity of the U.S. vaccine system, including vaccine evaluations and clinical guidelines based on rigorous and timely reviews. The Vaccine Integrity Project is supported by an unrestricted gift from Alumbra, a foundation established by philanthropist Christy Walton.”
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/vaccine-integrity-project
As a historian, I am aware of the sharp restrictions that government used to put on people in times of epidemics.
During the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia, neighboring New York and Baltimore quarantined refugees and shipments from Philadelphia, effectively forbidding their entry.
In 1940, the City of New York sent medical personnel door to door to enforce vaccination against smallpox which had surfaced again in the city.
Modern day conservatives are not aware of how forceful local governments could be on issues of public health.
I was born in the New York City area on Long Island & my Mom would tell me stories about people streaming out of the city to try to protect their children from polio. I was fortunate that I did not get that dreaded disease. I did have all the childhood diseases. When I had measles I had stars in my eyes at time but fortunately no long term affectsl When I had the mumps my fever was so high that I got out of bed & my parents found me trying to climb the walls! Again no long term affects. I am very grateful that I survived my childhood & was delighted when more & more vaccines came on line.
This "me first" "personal liberty" shit is wrong. All these christians that are running around telling everybody we need to have the Ten Commandments in school & creationism should be given equal time in biology class should take some time to read & digest the Golden Rule & the Beatitudes. And this is a reminder from an atheist! If I know about them then these other heretics should damn well know about them!
Thanks for reminding us of one other factor in the anti-vax nonsense: so few people alive today remember the dread of diseases that have long been banished. But I'm old, and I do remember. My mother's sister died of diphtheria; her brother died of strep that damaged his heart; one of my friend's children was permanently brain-damaged by encephalitis following chicken pox; I myself had all the childhood diseases, and almost died of scarlet fever. Humans have very short memories and no imagination -- but those were not fun times. I could not be more grateful for the vaccines that spare us from the diseases that once killed at least one in five of all live-born children before they were five years old.
These idiotic anti-vaxxers should be forced to visit old graveyards and see the graves of children who died ages 5 and younger prior to the advent of vaccination. That should drive home the impact of vaccination in a graphic way that even they could understand.
They don't care. They are too busy worshiping their Grand Idea that Vaccines Are Evil, and nothing else matters, including the health and lives of themselves or their own children. They do not care.
Atheists certainly have a role to play in insisting that cult Christianists are abandoning the normal precepts of morality in their acceptance of Trump-oriented pronouncements by charismatic preachers
I remember my dad quickly taking my sister and me to the jr. High school where the county health department was giving out polio vaccines on sugar cubes. That was an easy and very effective way to get children protected. I had German measles (rubella) as a kid and those memories of misery still stick with me.
Perhaps this is because “(m)odern day conservatives” no longer bother to read or research but accept the tasteless pablum dished out by their masters.
Modern-day conservatives (or at least the cohort that now is ruling the country) have no respect for public health, apparently elevating personal liberty and particularly religiously influenced choices above public health obligations. Their "feelings" are apparently to be given higher respect than the public welfare. Even in terms of traditional Christian religious teachings they are wrong.
also sent public health workers to TB patients homes to make sure they took their medecine
Thank you for this excellent piece. I retired from a 40-year career in public health and health behavior research a couple of years ago, and I am devastated and appalled by Trump and Kennedy are doing.
There are two fundamental paradoxes in epidemiology:
1) When infectious disease prevention works, the measures seem overbearing and/or unnecessary.
2) When a disease is virtually eradicated, cultural memory of its horrors evaporates. Often what remains is a highly distorted, almost romanticized recollection…”Oh, it wasn’t so bad.”
Yes, it absolutely was that bad.
I entered med school in 1972.
Back then, in the U.S. thousands of children younger than age 3 died or were severely damaged every year by a bacterium called H. flu Type B (NOT to be confused with Influenza, which is a virus). HIB caused crippling joint infections. It caused facial infections that rendered a child unrecognizable. It caused meningitis that usually killed – and if the child were lucky and lived, perhaps only partial or severe hearing and cognitive impairment. It was – horrible.
Every Pediatric office in the country had stacks of spinal tap trays – and every Pediatrician did several spinal taps each year. We would see a 9 - or 12 - or 15-month-old baby who presented with signs of meningitis, would do the spinal tap, would give I.V. antibiotics and then we would rush the baby to the hospital in the hope that we had intervened in time. Sometimes the baby lived – often, not.
The HIB vaccine came out in 1983 with a refined version several years later.
I remember looking at my colleagues in the early 90’s in astonishment. We whispered to each other in joy and amazement – “It’s gone”. It had taken less than 10 years.
Now, you will never see a spinal tap tray in a Pediatrician’s office – and many Pediatricians haven’t done one since they left training.
That’s how successful that vaccine was. It was a miracle.
This was the experience for every single cohort of clinicians in the twentieth century. Every generation saw the miracle happen.
For those in the 1920’s lockjaw AND diphtheria were stopped.
In the 1940’s it was whooping cough that went away.
In the 1950’s it was polio. Iron lungs disappeared.
In the 1960’s it was measles.
In the 70’s it was german measles. Babies no longer were born with heart defects, deafness or other malformations - and smallpox was actually eradicated from the globe!
In the 80’s it was H. flu.
One hundred and twenty years ago, nearly half of all children died by age 6. Now? Childhood death is truly unusual - and the single largest cause? It's not infection. It's guns.
The unspeakable tragedy is that the U.S. stands alone in such denial.
The world will watch while the United States has reborn epidemics of childhood plagues – and it will shake its collective head while in the U.S. science denial runs amok.
May I just ask one ridiculous question? Why , if so many senators didn't trust whom they voted to confirm ,why did they confirm them?
Cowardice, sycophancy, ass kissing but most of all cowardice!
One also suspects that threats, maybe vague, maybe very specific, were made as well. Certainly at a minimum the Trump machine threatens to "primary" even conservative Republican candidates at their next primary election.
Yup, I was going to add POLITICS to return's list. That can be a stronger influence on a politician than even cowardice.
I imagine threats to the physical safety of politicians and their families played a role. If we ever get through this, maybe people will speak up about it afterwards.
Fear mostly. Fear of being primaried, fear of their constituents rejecting them because they defied dear leader, fear of the MAGA attack dogs, even fear for their families! Ridiculous isn’t it!
It's totally pathetic & disgusting that the LOVE of money and power supersede a person's desire to help others!
Trump, RFK Jr and other MAGA are killing public health which will result in increased mortality and morbidity not only in the US but worldwide. Politicians like RFK have no business making health decisions.
You misspelled idiots.
Just ask, "What Would Putin Do?" and it all makes tragic sense.
Ah but as Scrooge once said in The Christmas Carol:
"If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population."
Thanks, Joyce! As a retired professor at the School of Public Health (UAB), I appreciate your comments.
We are being played for fools, the only country in the world where heathcare is not a human right. You are scammed day-in and day-out by insurance companies and big pharma. Insurance premiums paid monthly only for you to see Claim Denied. Drug costs that are 2-3 times the cost for the same drug in the next country. It is carnage on the American stage. You accept all that. ?????? https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/health-inequity?r=3m1bs
If vaccines are an unacceptable violation of “individual rights” then is not the ability to infect others a similar violation?
Yes, you are absolutely right. People need to remember the case of typhoid Mary in New York City. History of Medicine should be a required course for every undergraduate, and included in history courses in high school.
Exactly! But of course, Trump wants to equal the field by eliminating education altogether: Ignorance for all—it’s done wonders for me!