President Trump doesn’t like facts, doesn’t like science, and doesn’t like experts. He trusts his “gut” to tell what to do when faced with difficult decisions. That includes picking people to run the agencies of the government, including those that deal with the health of American citizens and various scientific disciplines. He doesn’t seem to understand that the strength of the economy and our military, in addition to the nation’s health, depends on an unfettered scientific establishment. Scientists must be free to do the research they feel is worthwhile, rather than being ruled by politicians who compose their agenda.
Trump’s cabinet and subcabinet picks appear determined to cut the number of scientific researchers working for the federal government, and to curb research that does not align with Trump’s or his cabinet’s scientific and medical beliefs. The continued growth of our economy requires scientific freedom to experiment in promising fields, and sometimes they will be wrong. But when they develop new technology and come up with new discoveries, the whole nation and sometimes the whole world benefits.
His choice of Robert Kennedy Jr to run the Department of Health and Human Services is an example of Trump choosing a person who has a profusion of ideas that have been proven to be scientifically invalid. Kennedy believes that vaccines are dangerous and cause autism among other adverse effects. Kennedy called the Covid-19 vaccine one of the most dangerous ever. He wants to stop fluoridation of the water supply which reduces tooth decay and believes that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are good treatments for Covid. All of these beliefs have been proven by the scientific establishment to be false. The NIH, the crown jewel of America’s health system is under threat from Kennedy and Trump. Some of Kennedy’s ideas on foods appear valid but his anti-scientific stances make him a dangerous candidate to take over all the health agencies.
There has also been talk about Trump getting rid of NOAA which is responsible for weather forecasting in North America and the surrounding oceans. In this era of heightened climate change and global warming, America and the rest of the world have faced multiple weather emergencies, including massive hurricanes, torrential rainstorms, flooding in some areas and droughts in others. The nation needs accurate weather forecasting to help its population prepare for these disasters before they hit. Trump has also called climate change a hoax and is in thrall to the fossil fuel companies whose products are the main driver of global warming. He does not want further research done that might prove him wrong and hurt his allies in the oil and gas business. But adoption of renewable energy is a must if we are to control global warming, with the concurrent elimination of fossil fuels. Biden’s Infrastructure Act was a move in the right direction, but we don’t know how Trump will deal with that. Trump will likely withdraw American again from the Paris Climate Accord. He doesn’t like to be proven wrong or shown up in any way and strikes out at those people willing to tell him when he is wrong. This is evident by the way he handled his appointees during his first term in office.
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Posted at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: Donald Trump, global warming, HHS, NOAA, Robert Kennedy Jr, science, vaccines
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020