To the editor:
The Trump administration is sabotaging the health of the United States and the world for no other reason than to offset tax cuts for the rich. Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been ceaselessly cutting jobs from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which jeopardizes not only our current capacity to respond to current diseases but also our ability to research and prevent future outbreaks.
Given the administration’s three-month delay in responding to COVID-19 in 2020, it is difficult to have any confidence in this government in controlling an epidemic now that it has gutted the responsible agencies.
Further, the shuttering of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other programs has denied life-saving medicine in the form of Polio vaccines and PEPFAR antiviral treatment for women with HIV to prevent transmission to their newborn infants. The closing of these programs, along with the denial of food to children with severe malnutrition is estimated to cause hundreds of thousands of deaths per year.
The kicker is that all of this was done in the name of efficiency when in truth, it is more efficient to prevent disease than deal with contagion, death, and disability later. And where will the “savings” go? Right into the pockets of billionaire donors like Musk. There is no justification for tax breaks for the rich while most of the country is struggling to get by.
This is an opportunity for Democrats to push for a Medicare For All healthcare system that actually works for the people, instead of one that spends 30% on administrative costs to corporate insurance and results in worse outcomes than the rest of the developed world. The American people deserve more than a government that treats life as cheap and greed as the highest good.
Alex DePalma
Quality Control Specialist and Lynnfield Resident
