Washington chaos takes over your healthcare

By Clyde E. Henderson, MD, Cincinnati Medical Association

We remember the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 1.2 million Americans died between the beginning, January 31, 2020, and the official end, May 11, 2023, of the pandemic emergency. Tens of millions of Americans were hospitalized, businesses and schools were shuttered, hundreds of billions of dollars were lost in the economy. White Americans experienced 1.2 years decrease in life expectancy, comparing 2019 to 2020. The life expectancy of African Americans decreased a staggering 2.9 years during that period. Another disproportionate effect on Black folks is the much more severe learning loss suffered by children in the US public-school systems because of the pandemic.

Many would argue that the only proper pandemic management by the then President, Mr. Trump, was “Operation Warp Speed.” The Covid-19 vaccine developed under this program, which used mRNA technology pioneered by an African American scientist, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, became available in December 2020, months if not years before expected. Tens of thousands of Americans and millions of lives around the globe were spared.

The current President and his administration have verbal amnesia regarding “Operation Warp Speed” and seem reluctant to acknowledge the lives saved by the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine and the science of its origin.    Consistent with Trump’s ongoing unscientific approach to the healthcare for Americans he placed Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and longtime anti-vaccine activist, in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The measures that he and the President are taking seem contrary to the DHHS mission of “Enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans.” 

We are saddled with a President who has told his DHHS Secretary to “go wild on healthcare.” RFK Jr. is doing exactly that. Trump and Kennedy are responsible for the firing of 10,000 DHHS employees in just the last seven months. The termination of these real experts has weakened, if not ended, the Department’s research and policies designed to combat America’s greatest health, environmental, poisoning, violence, and injury challenges.

In the Spring, 2025 Mr. Kennedy downplayed the worse U.S. measles outbreak seen in years. He issued a delayed, less than full-throated, endorsement of the proven measles vaccine whose use had once resulted in the eradication of measles in the US. He strongly advocated the unproven use of Vitamin A (found in high concentrations in cod-liver oil), and steroids as alternatives. Texas reported hospital admissions for Vitamin A toxicity after his musing. Additionally, approximately $500 million was taken away from mRNA research and its promises for our health. These canceled contracts affected not only vaccine development, but also cancer research and other potential health break throughs.

Other baffling moves include removing pregnant women from the recommendation for the updated Covid-19 vaccine, much to the objection of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. RFK Jr. also fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with people more aligned with his long-standing anti-vaccine positions. This Committee approves the recommendation of the FDA before vaccines are allowed to come to market.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) building in Atlanta, GA, was shot up by a man whose reported motive was to protest COVID-19 vaccines. Approximately 150 windows were damaged and RFK Jr., whose DHHS is responsible for the CDC, was accused of being slow to respond. The latest action was that Secretary Kennedy replaced the one-month in office CDC Director, Dr. Susan Monarez, with a non-physician. Dr. Monarez, along with four of her CDC experts, refused to endorse an “updated” vaccine policy which they all felt was political and not based on science or data. Nine former Directors of the CDC, who served for Republican and Democrat administrations since 1977, agreed with these recently fired CDC experts. The former Directors wrote in a New York Times op-ed on September 1, 2025, “Kennedy is Endangering Every American’s Health.

There is additional chaos affecting your healthcare. As a result of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill (BBB Law) it is estimated that twenty (20) MILLION people will be kicked off their Medicaid healthcare. These Medicaid cuts are being strategically delayed until after the 2026 election. They do not want the voters to hold them responsible for their 2025 actions. Additional consequences will be reductions in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), significant automatic decreases in Medicare benefits triggered by the Medicaid cuts, because of Trump’s BBB. Massive premium increases on the Affordable Care Act exchange are on the immediate horizon, thus fewer Americans will be able to afford the insurance.

Chaos has been unleashed in every aspect of Americans’ lives. Let us not be discouraged by, nor let the chaos kill us. Get your COVID-19 and flu vaccine when they become available. Remember the perpetrators of this chaos, and their enablers, as you prepare to vote.