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September 28: The mechanical reasons for the
fall of the Twin Towers is well established: When two hijacked airplanes flew
into the towers, the buildings became structurally weakened and eventually
collapsed. Subsequently, fires ignited at impact and exacerbated by the jet fuel
spread during the collision caused the steel structural supports in the
buildings to weaken, eventually resulting in the collapse of both buildings.
March 1: Foreign aid, which accounts for roughly 1% of the federal
budget, is expected to be high on the list of areas to cut [from Trump's
budget]. The US was heavily involved in combating the recent Ebola crisis in
West Africa. Had there not been the global response there could have been an
international pandemic ... If we were to significantly recede, it would be a
matter of life and death for a lot of people ...
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/politics/trump-budget-foreign-aid/index.html
November 13: President Donald Trump on
Monday announced he is nominating Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical company
executive and George W. Bush administration official, to succeed Tom Price as
the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
November 15: Some States Roll Back
‘Retroactive Medicaid,’ A Buffer For The Poor — And For Hospitals ... If you’re
poor, uninsured and fall seriously ill, in most states if you qualify for
Medicaid — but weren’t enrolled at the time — the program will pay your medical
bills going back three months. It protects hospitals, too, from having to absorb
the costs of caring for these patients.
But a growing number of states are rescinding this benefit known as “retroactive
eligibility.”
December 15:Trump
administration officials are forbidding officials at
the nation's top public health agency from using a list of seven words or
phrases ... The forbidden words are: "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity,"
"transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based" and "science-based."
The longtime CDC analyst, whose job includes writing descriptions of the CDC's
work for the administration's annual spending blueprint, could not recall a
previous time when words were banned from budget documents because they were
considered controversial.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/16/health/cdc-banned-words/index.html
December 15: "The reaction of people in the
meeting was 'incredulous,'" [an] analyst said. "It was very much, 'Are you
serious? Are you kidding?' "
They weren't told why the words were banned, but you can draw your own
conclusions.
... who wants the agency responsible for stopping epidemics
from using science-based solutions?
As the Post notes, the CDC is tasked with studying the effects of Zika
on fetuses and stopping the spread of HIV in transgender populations, so it
looks like officials might have to get creative with their language when writing
their reports.
http://mashable.com/2017/12/15/cdc-banned-words-trump/#iglRHDnPhqqX
“Since Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, the FDA
has been working closely with Baxter and other companies to reduce the risk of
shortages of critically important drugs and to minimize impact on any existing
shortages. In particular, Baxter and the FDA have closely monitored and
identified ways to prevent a significant shortfall of production of Baxter’s
sodium chloride 0.9% injection bags from its Puerto Rico facility. Also known as
mini bags, this product is used to provide fluids and medicines to patients
across the U.S. ..."
https://www.abc15.com/news/national/puerto-rico-hurricane-contributed-to-iv-bag-shortage-at-hospitals-nationwide
Undated 2018:
Some of the disadvantages of oil are that it is a nonrenewable
resource and creates air pollution. It also is
often produced by countries who are unstable politically, and it can be harmful
if spilled in the ocean or some other wildlife habitat.
Renewable resources are ones that regenerate themselves, such as wind or solar
power. Oil is a nonrenewable resource because there is a limited supply in the
world. When burned, the sulfur in oil turns into compounds that cause acid rain.
April 23: Trump’s State Department Erases
Reproductive Rights From Human Rights Report
“Reproductive rights are human rights, and omitting the issue signals the Trump
Administration’s latest retreat from global leadership on human rights."
The report, titled “Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017,”
is meant to “document the status of human rights and worker rights in nearly 200
countries and territories” and is “used by a variety of actors, including the
U.S. Congress, the executive branch, and the judicial branch as a factual
resource for decision making in matters ranging from assistance to asylum.”
June 25: "There are 70,000 ways the human
body can fail. We've generated 4,000 medical surgical procedures, 6,000 drugs,
and we're trying to deploy that capability town by town in the right way, at the
right time, for everybody alive. It's the most ambitious thing anybody has ever
attempted
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/06/25/dr_atul_gawande_at_aspen
June 29: Federal Judge Blocks Medicaid Work
Requirements In Kentucky
July 8:
Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World
Health Officials
[Trump Administration] American officials sought to water down the
resolution by removing language that called on governments to “protect, promote
and support breast-feeding” and another passage that called on policymakers to
restrict the promotion of food products that many experts say can have
deleterious effects on young children.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/08/health/world-health-breastfeeding-ecuador-trump.html
July 9: President Donald Trump on Monday attacked a New
York Times story that reported how his administration attempted to weaken a
World Health Assembly resolution to promote breastfeeding, saying women
shouldn’t be denied access to formula.
... The resolution, introduced by Ecuador, did not bar the use of formula.
“The failing NY Times Fake News story today about breast feeding must be called
out. The U.S. strongly supports breast feeding but we don’t believe women should
be denied access to formula. Many women need this option because of malnutrition
and poverty,” Trump said in a tweet.
September 20: The Trump Administration
Intends To Cut Cancer Research Funding To Pay For The Care Of Immigrant Children
The number of immigrant children in government custody has skyrocketed from
2,400 in May 2017 to 12,800 as of September this year.
Seeking additional funds to house and feed immigrant children separated from
their parents, the federal government intends to move money from maternal
health, mental health, AIDS, and substance abuse programs, as well as cancer
research.
September 24: [From "why do people love -or
hate- Trump? Here Are The 20 Top Reasons "]
19. He cuts government services.
If you’re looking for work and need food stamps so you don’t starve to death
before you find a job, or if you’re a single mother with a deadbeat husband and
two babies to feed, or if you’re a mentally ill person in desperate need of care
or you very might well harm yourself or others, don’t look to President Trump.
He doesn’t care.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/jeremy-london/2018/07/why-do-people-hate-trump/
November 1: Trump Administration Hands
States Another Tool for Dismantling Preexisting Condition Protections
Last week, the Trump administration issued long-anticipated guidance regarding
the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1332 “innovation waiver” program. The release
rebrands and creatively reimagines the ACA program (they’re now “State Relief
and Empowerment” waivers), breaking dramatically with past policy and, arguably,
with the statute it purports to interpret. In the administration’s view, the ACA
permits states to funnel federal dollars towards insurance products, such as
short-term plans, which do not meet the ACA’s key consumer protections, while
reducing support for consumers who depend on coverage compliant with the ACA’s
rules. Further, the new guidance assures states that they may push forward with
such policies even if they will have a detrimental effect on people with
preexisting conditions, those at lower incomes, or older Americans.
https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2018/11/01/trump-administration-hands-states-another-tool-for-dismantling-preexisting-condition-protections/
December 11:Trump EPA Proposes Major Rollback Of Federal Water Protections
Vast amounts of wetlands and thousands of miles of U.S. waterways would no
longer be federally protected by the Clean Water Act under a new proposal by the
Trump administration.
The proposal, announced Tuesday at the Environmental Protection Agency, would
change the EPA's definition of "waters of the United States," or WOTUS, limiting
the types of waterways that fall under federal protection to major waterways,
their tributaries, adjacent wetlands and a few other categories.
December 14: Former President Barack Obama
released a
video earlier this week urging people to hurry up and shop for health
insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchange.
"This year I'm giving it to you straight," Obama says in the video. "It's
important to have health insurance in case, God forbid, you get really sick, or
hurt yourself next year."
"I hate to panic but I do think we're going to come in low on the federal
exchange, says
Rosemarie Day, CEO of Day Health Strategies. Day was the founding COO of
Massachusetts' state
exchange, which launched in 2006, long before the Affordable Care Act became
law.
December 15: A federal judge in Texas said
on Friday that the Affordable Care Act's individual coverage mandate is
unconstitutional and that the rest of the law therefore cannot stand.
The ruling and expected appeal sets up another cliffhanger in which the fate of
the law, which Republicans have unsuccessfully tried to repeal for years, will
likely once again ultimately lie with the Supreme Court.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/14/politics/texas-aca-lawsuit/index.html
December 15: Obamacare Will ‘Likely’ Survive
Judge’s Ruling, Obama Tweets
He reassures Americans as he reminds people to sign up for the health care
program before the deadline.
December 18: An Epidemic Is Killing
Thousands Of Coal Miners. Regulators Could Have Stopped It
... an NPR/Frontline analysis of federal regulatory data — decades of
information recorded by dust-collection monitors placed where coal miners work —
has revealed a tragic failure to recognize and respond to clear signs of danger.
December 18: Dr. Leana Wen has only been at
the helm of
Planned Parenthood for a month, but she says the politically-driven attempts
to try and take
away access to their health care services are already a constant.
“We feel repeated attacks from the
Trump administration against reproductive health and women’s health almost
on a daily basis,” Wen, 35, tells PEOPLE. “We are very concerned about the Trump
administration’s efforts to attack science, to attack medicine, to attack the
fundamental right to health care.”
Contract disputes between insurers and medical providers have been a regular
feature of the national health industry for a long time. But the stakes have
risen as big players on both sides have expanded to gain market share and
leverage in network negotiations.
March 15: Trump’s Methylene Chloride Rule
Leaves Workers Exposed To Deadly Chemical
EPA abandons proposed ban on commercial uses of paint-stripping chemical linked
to dozens of workers’ deaths
n January 2017, EPA acknowledged those risks and proposed a ban on commercial
and consumer uses of methylene chloride paint strippers. Since then, at least
four people — including two workers — have died from methylene chloride
exposure. However, despite repeated promises to finalize that proposal, the
Trump administration reversed course and excluded workers from its final
methylene chloride rule.
