President-elect Trump’s second term could aim to extend his first in terms of impact on our health care. Much of what we heard was from Trump ally Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” plan.

Trump’s first term may also provide clues about what’s to come. And there is Agenda 47Trump’s political plans for his time in office.

Some changes to federal health offices and powers could include the Affordable Care Act, public health regulations, CDC guidance, research, vaccines and drinking water.

Public health experts have shared their concerns about what Trump’s second term could bring.

“We remain concerned that much of the rhetoric that took place during the campaign. Now, I understand the campaign rhetoric, (but) it wasn’t necessarily based on evidence. And we know that many of the people who have spoken out are people who have been known to provide bad information, misinformation and, in some cases, misinformation about health,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

RFK Jr. said big changes are coming for federal health agencies, both during and after he suspended his own campaign.

In a November 5 video on his website, he said: “Our big priority will be to clean up public health agencies like the CDC, NIH, FDA and the US Department of Agriculture. Those agencies have become sock puppets in the industries they are supposed to regulate.”

Experts say RFK Jr. has a history of spreading the word false anti-vaccine informationincluding the long-disproved claim of vaccines and autism which resulted from erroneous studies in late 90s and early 2000s which have since been retracted.

“For decades, RFK Jr. has been a source of misinformation and outright lies about vaccinations and other treatments for disease. When you see someone like him get the ear of the president-elect and brag about the influence he will have. , this is something that could be very scary,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “To me, to be against a technology that has added decades to everyone’s lifespan, that is saving hundreds of millions of children from early death, that is making the world a lot more welcoming to people – to be against something like that is to to be honest. It requires high levels of evasion of all the evidence that supports how vaccines have changed humanity for the better.”

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In an exclusivity MSNBC interview On Wednesday, RFK was asked about taking vaccines off the market.

“If vaccines work for someone, I’m not going to take them away. People should have a choice. And that choice should be based on the best information. So I will make sure that the scientific studies and the effectiveness are done. there and people can make individual assessments about whether that product will be good for them,” he said.

“To put that qualifier out there, especially from someone like RFK Jr., tells you that good science to him means science that agrees with his preconceived notion. Not science that adheres to the facts of reality, not science that is derived from the evidence of the senses. , but science that fits an explanation that they want to use for political gain or political power,” Adalja told Scripps News.

The Affordable Care Act could come up next year as Congress debates whether to extend some of those plan subsidies expanded during the Biden administration. In his first term, the Trump administration pushed to offer more short-term health plans, and we could see that again. A 2018 KFF review found that 71 percent of these plans did not cover prescription drugs, and none of the plans covered maternity care.

We may also see guidelines change from the Biden administration to the Trump administration for chemicals in drinking water forever. RFK Jr. also said he expects a rollback of fluoride added to public drinking water.

The The CDC calls it fluoridationalongside vaccines, among the “10 Great Public Health Interventions of the 20th Century”.

When it comes to the many potential changes, public health advocates are preparing for what lies ahead.

“When they do things that we think are in the public’s health, we will stand with them. But when they do things that are not in the public health, you can be damn sure we’re going to advocate against it,” Benjamin said.

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