One of the invisible costs of trump being elected appeared in my email today.
I subscribe to “Your Local Epidemiologist” – a blog (on Substack) by Katelyn Jetelina an epidemiologist who writes about epidemiology in understandable ways. Her piece today is sobering!
“Now What For Public Health?” she asks.
The U.S. election this week sent shock waves through the field of public health—not just domestically, but internationally as well.
For many in public health, like me, the prospect of national leadership by individuals with an established track record of ignoring the evidence is deeply disconcerting. This has led to anxiety (and even feelings of loss and sadness). So much is unknown about the future of this field—from policies like routine vaccinations, to the impact of falsehoods moving mainstream, to the resources available to hold up an “invisible shield” for the public’s health.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that we are entering a new world.
Public Health is one of those government functions that runs in the background. It provides what epidemiologists call “The Invisible Shield“. But public health, today, is increasingly under siege, underfunded, fighting hard to keep the public healthy in an environment of conspiracy theories, crackpot science, and a vaccine denier about to assume the responsibility for keeping the American public healthy!
Wanna bet there will be significant cuts to funding for the CDC? What about vaccine research (not just ongoing for COVID-19, but for flu, measles, RSV, all those regular viruses that come around year after year?). Forget about regular immunization for kids to attend school – that will become a thing of the past, I’m sure. Can you not anticipate how the health of the nation will fare?
Public health also oversees water quality, food safety, and on and on. Here’s a list from the American Public Health Association:
Every day, public health people are working – mostly behind the scenes – to prevent hazards and keep people healthy. For example, public health is responsible for:
- Tracking disease outbreaks and vaccinating communities to avoid the spread of disease.
- Setting safety standards to protect workers.
- Developing school nutrition programs to ensure kids have access to healthy food.
- Advocating for laws to keep people safe, including smoke-free indoor air and seatbelts.
- Working to prevent gun violence.
- Addressing the impact of climate change on our health.
All pretty important functions. All likely about to be curtailed to some extent or other.
I can’t imagine the exasperation, frustration, outright rage of public health officials who know what the impact of cutting public health funding and departments is going to have on public health!
And this is just a single invisible cost. I anticipate there will be so many others.
Let’s hope we don’t turn on our public health workforce here in Canada!
jmn 
And that’s just one direction the impact will be felt. But even here we have seriously decreasing numbers of vaccinated children and diseases we have long had control of are returning.