Hundreds rallied in UCSB’s Arbor on Tuesday, April 8, as part of the nationwide “Kill the Cuts” protests against the Trump administration’s attacks on research, health, and higher education. | Credit: Christina McDermott
Washington, April 11 (RHC)-- The small government policies of Donald Trump keep provoking continual and distinct nationwide protests two and a half months into his second term.
Across the United States, healthcare patients, unions, medical workers, researchers and academics demanded a reversal of Trump's cuts in healthcare, research and education, which they say endangers the future of public health.
Among developed nations, the United States has the highest obesity rates, the worst performing but most expensive healthcare system, and, astounding inequalities in how people are cared for.
Many say that means governmental abandon will only make things worse. One protesters, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We need accurate information, we need factual information, we need evidence-based knowledge. We need all of this for decision-making. We need this for our kids to be properly educated. But suppression of knowledge, it's an attack on democracy and it's an attack on diversity and plurality. So we really don't need any cuts right now to things that help us be better educated and informed."
Prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, the nation's various health agencies enjoyed decades of bipartisan support, but the constant flip flopping on guidelines, accusations of inflated casualty counts, and, intolerance for dissenting viewpoints tarnish the image of the nation's health establishment for many Republicans.
Dr Anthony Fauci's successor, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, is among the thousands of recently fired federal health workers. She told journalists: "I want to be ready for the next pandemic. I want to be ready to deal with diseases as they're understood and can be addressed make people's lives better. I want the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control to keep doing what they've been doing so well they didn't need to be torn apart."
Many speakers and protesters noted how disregard for human suffering in Gaza has encouraged a disregard for human suffering among the nations medically vulnerable.
Observers says that further imperiling the future of American healthcare is the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and deportations since 25% of the nation's doctors and medical scientists are foreign born.
[ SOURCE: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES ]
