Trump to medics: stand down
New head of state shuts down the branch of government that works to protect public health. Good plan.
Health officials and experts said this week they are reeling after the new Trump administration on Tuesday abruptly halted external communication at the Department of Health and Human Services and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The pause extends through Feb. 1, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The Trump administration also issued a second order indefinitely halting the travel of HHS personnel, according to a second memo obtained by The Post.
Sure because who needs health? Or disease control? Or disease prevention? Those are just liberal frivolities. What we need is more disease and more contagion: it weeds out the feeble and useless, and makes the survivors tougher.
The decisions to pause communications and travel, which were not publicly announced — and which extended to reporters’ inquiries, with HHS media offices not responding to requests for comment for two days — trickled out as agency staff members and health-care workers across the country have tried to make sense of suddenly canceled briefings, updates and events.
These people are so spoiled, with their briefings and updates and events. Who needs all that? If they’re not handing out aspirin what use are they? Fire them all! Eat some spinach and you’ll be fine.
The CDC canceled a monthly call scheduled for this coming Monday with the entire clinical laboratory community — lab leaders, pathologists and laboratory scientists across the country, including at large health systems and hospitals — that had been intended to share updates about emerging threats and testing changes.
“It is hard to imagine a worse time to prohibit federal officials from communicating directly with the clinical laboratory community and the public health workforce,” one laboratory leader said, noting the slew of winter viruses and increasing risk of avian flu. “Viruses don’t care who the CDC director or HHS secretary is, or what spin newly appointed political leadership want to put on their agencies’ efforts.”
Well if viruses don’t care Trump is damn well going to make them care.
The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which provides clinical updates to health-care personnel and had published at its regular cadence after Trump’s first inauguration, did not appear at its regular time Thursday. This week’s edition was set to include updates on avian flu.
The list of postponed meetings has continued to grow, such as a planned meeting next week of the president’s council on how to fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Federal researchers contacted by The Post on Thursday said they were still seeking answers about whether their workshops and discussions with external experts could proceed.
I have to say, I didn’t have this on my bingo card. I didn’t expect him to start killing us off the minute he returned. To start punishing us, yes, but just plain killing us, no.
I bet that’s Robert F Kennedy’s doing. He’s been going on and on about how the health establishment is actively harming public health. So better shut it all down until he can take control and tell the peons how it should be done.
Some quotes from an InsideHigherEd article: (added bolding)
“A pause in communication is typical during a new administration’s transition.”
“Carrie Wolinetz, a science and health policy consultant who worked for the NIH between 2015 and 2023, said in an email that the communications freeze is similar to memos from previous transitions. Although she acknowledged that pausing study section meetings seems broader than previous transitions, it doesn’t strike her “as tremendously outside the norm of activities that might be paused while a new team is transitioning.”
“An NIH spokesperson clarified to Inside Higher Ed via email that the restrictions apply to communication “not directly related to emergencies or critical to preserving health,” and that any “exceptions for announcements that HHS divisions believe are mission critical” will be made “on a case-by-case basis.””
“… it is important that the President’s appointees and designees have the opportunity to review and approve any regulations, guidance, documents, and other public documents and communications (including social media),” explained the memo, which instructed agency employees to refrain from numerous forms of communications, including issuing grant award announcements and public speaking, until a presidential appointee can review them. The memo is in effect until Feb. 1. ” (That’s 1 week)
So you’re actually trying to defend this.
Unbelievable.
Holy shit was that some deceptive quoting. The article as a whole is not remotely that “Don’t worry it’s all totally normal” – quite the reverse. What the HELL is your point? Why are you defending a reckless punitive attack on the US public health bureaucracy? What is wrong with you?
It might be, but it doesn’t need to be. Trump hates those institutions because of Covid. Even if it was RFK’s suggestion, I imagine it fell on receptive ears.
iknklast: Ah, that angle did not occur to me. Good point.
He probably also hates them for being based on expertise as opposed to whatever makes him so appealing to lunatics.
You’d think one of the godawfuls in his orbit would explain the value of not letting disease ravage Trump and other real Americans. Bannon, Miller, and Musk all know that infectious disease is a problem, right?
Fauci and other health officials made Trump look bad.
They also did not eradicate Covid although Trump said that it will vanish quickly.
In the mindset of a narcissist, this is a direct personal attack on him.
So this is revenge, plain and simple. That it may have bad consequences for the public is irelevant since this doesnot affect Trump directly.
Almost everything he does can be easily understood if you assume him to be narcisstic.
@Ophelia:
I’m pondering whether these are rhetorical question, or actually inviting a reply.
Ponder away.
They weren’t rhetorical at all. Your comment @ 2 is so deceptive it’s insulting. If you refuse to acknowledge that then go away.
No doubt I shouldn’t join in, but the sheer insolence of that last comment of Coel’s is astounding.
Shock and awe, I suppose.
OK then, a reply and explanation:
My comment #2 wasn’t even intended to be a summary of the linked article, it was intended to be a couple of counter-points to the OP, which seemed a tad hyperbolic.
Background: many scientific and similar bodies, including the NIH, have in recent years put out statements about diversity, DEI ideology, “decolonialisation” and similar topics that the Republicans take issue with. They’ve also diverted a substantial fraction of grant money to studies of DEI-related topics that, being run by ideologues, have little actual value.
Since the new guys in charge are formally responsible for everything from the time that they take over, and since they’re just getting their feet under the table, it seems fairly reasonable that they request a pause, for all of one week, on any external communications or grant decisions, in order to give time to look at them and okay them — especially if it comes with a “if there’s anything that can’t wait a week contact me” rider. It seems that previous administrations have done the same.
Since 8 out of 10 people in the NIH and similar science-related bodies despise Trump, they will, of course, catastrophize any such memo, and some of this is reflected in the pieces linked to.
The problem with catastrophizing like this is that all the non-partisans soon learn to tune out the hyperbolic language. (That effect is very evident in the US today.) It also fails to distinguish between actions that are actually quite reasonable (but just done by the other tribe) and actions that are actually bad and deserve condemnation.
Am I “defending a reckless punitive attack” on the NIH? Not really, more saying that — so far! — their actions seem reasonable, and unlikely to actually kill anyone, and way down the list of things to complained about. Of course they may do worse later …
What’s wrong with me? Nothing, I’m just not all that partisan.
Oh blah blah blah. Team Trump didn’t “request” anything, they just shut it down, bang. They did it rudely and abruptly, on purpose. None of this is normal or routine; your whitewashing is ridiculous.
Ah, the usual display of injured innocence & fake candour.
I suppose it’s easier to defend if you don’t have to live with the consequences.