Donald Trump and RFKjr are idiots putting lives of all Americans at risk of exposure to infectious diseases and environmental contamination

Editorial published in Le Monde

Trump's deplorable offensive against vaccines❗

Donald Trump is a sick old man.  RFKjr is a morally bankrupt embarrassment to his family.

By signing an executive order on Monday recommending, among other things, that US states reduce the number of vaccines administered in pediatric care, Donald Trump is irresponsibly fueling the poison of suspicion.

One can only hope that the executive order Donald Trump signed on Monday, August 10, meets the same fate as many others that reflect his obsessions whose impact does not extend beyond the walls of the White House's Oval Office. 

Unbelievably, his order recommends that states drastically revise their vaccination policies to reduce the number of vaccines administered to children. It also endorses separating the vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, which, until now, have been administered as a single injection.

The president of the United States used the signing ceremony to, once again, repeat claims that the scientific consensus considers conspiracy theories: that vaccines administered to children lead them to develop autism spectrum disorders. This rumor, which Trump first seized on in 2012, has never been proven but is nevertheless championed by the anti-vaccine movement, which denounces both imaginary health risks and what it claims is the federal government infringing on individual freedoms.

It would be tempting to dismiss this executive order, which will surely face legal challenges, as an old man's whim.  Nevertheless, it fuels a culture of doubt that is already having an impact on American public opinion. As shown by the Pew Research Center, an independent institution, Republican voters have begun to diverge when it comes to the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. 

Over the past 10 years, support for the single shot has eroded, dropping from 91% to 78%. The poison of suspicion is set to spread even further with the August 10, (stupid ❗) executive order.

Trump's remarks are irresponsible. American children are set to go back to school as the country faces its worst measles outbreak in 35 years. By year's end, the surge in measles cases could cost the US its status as a country that has eliminated the disease, a title it has held since 2000. Vaccine skepticism has played a significant role in this outbreak, which started in a religious community opposed to vaccination in Texas, a Republican state.

The roadmap for Trump's second term in office, drafted by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, recommended just such a backward step on vaccination policy. 

Ever since he was appointed to head the Department of Health and Human Services, the notorious anti-vaccine activist Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (RFKjr) has carried out sweeping purges in the ranks of health agencies responsible for immunization policy. 

Republican senators with medical expertise nonetheless supported his appointment, out of fear they might displease Trump.

This deadly ideology is not limited to vaccines. Ever since Trump returned to power, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  – if it can still be called that – has, out of a philosophy of climate change denial, eliminated several federal measures designed to guarantee air quality. This notably includes limits on greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel power plants, as well as regulations on fine particulate matter.

With this systematic dismantling, Trump's administration is fueling a genuine wave of scientific revisionism. The reputations of vital public health measures will only suffer from it, as will the health of all Americans.