The Trump administration leaves a devastating health legacy far past COVID-19, in response to a new study in The Lancet by 33 researchers, led by professors at Harvard Medical Faculty and the College of California at San Francisco.
The report finds that the Trump administration’s health policies resulted in 461,000 pointless U.S. deaths yearly—along with 40% of America’s COVID-19 deaths so far, plus 22,000 avoidable deaths yearly from environmental policies.
The authors paint a damning image of Trump politics, concluding that he purposely sought struggling white voters, after which backed policies that threatened their health: He earned his largest 2016 electoral margins in counties with the county’s worst mortality statistics, with life expectations averaging 2 years shorter than in counties the place he misplaced. His policies overwhelmingly favored firms and rich Individuals.
The paper presents a horrifying quantification of how and why the pandemic has price so many American lives. Although the report factors many fingers on the Trump administration, it additionally highlights the earlier 4 a long time of weakened social and health security nets, together with the 50,000 frontline staff that public health companies misplaced from 2008 to 2016 as a consequence of funds cuts; over 10% of Individuals confronted starvation, which correlates with a excessive danger of weight problems and diabetes, each widespread components in extreme COVID-19.
The researchers in contrast the U.S. figures to these of G7 nations. “This unprecedented decoupling of health from nationwide wealth indicators that our society is sick,” says coauthor Steffie Woolhandler, a lecturer (and former professor) at Harvard Medical Faculty. “Whereas the rich have thrived, most Individuals have misplaced floor, each economically and medically. The Biden administration should reboot democracy and implement the progressive social and health policies wanted to place the nation on the highway to raised health.”
That is the primary complete take a look at the health impacts of the Trump administration.
