A coalition of public health researchers, healthcare workers and advocates is proposing that states join forces to create their own public health authorities in place of organizations like the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as the Trump administration implements its public health policies.
A November statement from the group “Defend Public Health” flagged a change on the CDC’s website that has changed recently to say that it cannot be conclusively stated that vaccines don’t cause autism, due to a lack of research that would bolster those conclusions.
Dr. Peter Lipson, a primary care provider, said at the Defend Public Health press conference today that when patients or those around him ask where they can look for information about disease prevention, he doesn’t know anymore because he can’t rely on a CDC that has become a “mouthpiece for misinformation for” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Rob Kennedy “and his allies,” Lipson said.
“Who’s the most dangerous man in America? Probably Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,” said Eve Mokotoff, a member of Defend Public health.
An alliance between states has already been attempted, and Mokotoff said both the East and West coasts have formed their own alliances, and she’s aware of conversations happening among Midwestern and Great Lakes states. However, it would take years to make it happen.
When asked what other health organizations a multi-state alliance in the Midwest would try to replace, like the CDC or Food & Drug Administration (FDA) or National Institutes of Health (NIH), Mokotoff said it was mind-numbing to even have to ask that question. She said it’s hard to answer because the expertise has been concentrated for so many years.
“Our public health system has been the envy of the world,” Mokotoff said. “I don’t even have strong enough words for how shameful this is.”
Rep. Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor) said attacks from the Trump administration on the NIH, CDC and FDA have trickled down to the states.
“The only purpose of the Trump administration is to make measles great again. And Secretary Brainworm, he’s trying to make polio great again,” Rheingans said.
Two other points that Defend Public Health wants to protect are vaccines and healthcare access.
On vaccines, Lipson said he has patients that come in and when he recommends they receive a COVID-19 vaccine, they ask, “Covid is still a thing?”
“It’s very much still a thing. There are hundreds and hundreds of Americans dying every week of COVID, depending on what time of year it is,” Lipson said. “So not only is it still a thing, but it’s a thing we can fix.”
Even still, Lipson said his patients don’t know if they can trust vaccines.
“You can’t defeat that messaging without help,” Lipson said.
The group has started a petition drive to call on the state government to protect public health from health misinformation handed down by the federal government.
This story courtesy of MIRS, a Lansing-based news and information service.