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Make America Healthy Again? -- Digby
https://digbysblog.net/2025/03/19/make-america-healthy-again-2/
JV Last the Bulwark makes an important point that has been driving me nuts too:
He goes on to list one disease and health condition after another that has been eradicated or massively reduced in just the last half century. Cancer alone has changed from an automatic death sentence to commonly treatable and it’s getting better every day. (Or was … until now.)
Yes, diabetes is a major new problem mostly due to obesity. But there are some extremely effective new drugs that Bobby Jr and his crew want to take off the market. He says people just need to “eat right.” (No word on whether they should take steroids like he does.) There was a time when that kind of thing was said to be nanny state authoritarianism but now all those people at the Trump rallies are apparently going to switch to arugula and beet juice because Bobby says they should. Sure.
. . .
Our new health establishment is explicit about wanting to go backwards. It’s right there on the hat: Make America Healthy Again.
Again.
Meaning: America used to be “healthy” and now is not.
I’m sorry, I know we’re supposed to meet people where they are and give them a loving truth sandwich, but this is the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.
Does anyone remember what “health” looked like in America a generation or two ago? Half the country smoked. People dropped dead at 50 on the reg. Child birth was dangerous. Seatbelts were suss. Drug use was off the charts.
Dangerous communicable diseases were still around. Cancer was a death sentence. AIDS looked like an unstoppable tsunami.
Food? Do remember what grocery stores looked like in 1980? Aisles of canned vegetables, processed foods, and frozen TV dinners. Fresh produce? Good luck. That section of the Acme was a shoebox.
He goes on to list one disease and health condition after another that has been eradicated or massively reduced in just the last half century. Cancer alone has changed from an automatic death sentence to commonly treatable and it’s getting better every day. (Or was … until now.)
Yes, diabetes is a major new problem mostly due to obesity. But there are some extremely effective new drugs that Bobby Jr and his crew want to take off the market. He says people just need to “eat right.” (No word on whether they should take steroids like he does.) There was a time when that kind of thing was said to be nanny state authoritarianism but now all those people at the Trump rallies are apparently going to switch to arugula and beet juice because Bobby says they should. Sure.
. . .