Current U.S. health officials could not be doing a better job than they are now of exposing us to future pandemics. The hantavirus may be bad news, but for now, it is one of the lesser problems Americans face on the healthcare front.
First, on the hantavirus itself, it is helpful to know that the strain infecting and even killing people around the world has thus far not been seen in the U.S. and is still relatively contained. Known as the “Andes” variant, it has, until the outbreak on the cruise ship this month, been confined to South America. Doctors have said that rodent feces and saliva, not human contact, are the main transmitter.
The confinement of the virus thus far to South America and to the people from the ship, who are now in isolation in their home countries, including the U.S., does not mean, in and of itself, that people in the U.S. are “safe.” Since the early 1990s, there have been around 1,000 identified cases in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency that—it’s worth noting—has been severely hobbled in recent years.
While it is important to track things like the hantavirus as soon as we learn about them, the prominence of the hantavirus story in the news should trigger more serious and immediate concerns.
The real problem we face is that the Trump administration has dismantled the entire apparatus we have had in in place to shield the country from any epidemics and pandemics and to deal with them if they do occur. That means that should an immediate and deadly threat arise due to a new or mutated pathogen, we could be in for disaster that would make the COVID-19 pandemic look like a mild annoyance.
When coronavirus hit years ago, we had in place a system to mobilize the entire economy and nation to fight the pandemic—even if President Donald Trump had been reluctant to activate it in 2020. In his second term, Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., have ensured that is all gone now.
What we have now with the hantavirus is a chance for a practice run on how to handle a potential pandemic. As unlikely as that outcome may be right now from this particular strain, it could eventually happen, and this is an opportunity to see how our public health system is able to react. That practice run should be run by competent people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and took a leading role in the battle against COVID-19 under first Trump and then Biden.
There is no such qualified leader or team in place today. In charge now are Kennedy at the Health Department, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya at the National Institutes of Health and the CDC, and Russell Vought at the White House Office of Management and Budget. One would be hard pressed to think of a less competent team to head up plans for and implementation of the required defense against any potential pandemic.
One has only to look at what these men have done to see how big a danger we face—not necessarily rom hantavirus—but from them.
The White House offices for preparedness activity have been emptied and shuttered. The agencies that study the transmission of dangerous pathogens from animals to humans have been shut down. The CDC has been gutted and left only with a string of acting directors.
These “leaders” have pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. All the closures and unfilled vacancies have been imposed upon operations that were crucial in fighting the COVID pandemic. In short, they have left the country wide open and vulnerable to any pathogen that might have an epidemic or pandemic potential.
In stripping away our protection against infectious disease, these men come to their jobs armed with Kennedy’s idea that the environment is really the only thing that makes us sick. Infection from pathogens, he believes, plays no major role at all. Most competent people in the field of health understand that both of those factors play a role in our collective and individual health and that both must be taken into consideration when we fight pandemics and work to prevent future outbreaks.
Vought’s approach to fighting pandemics brings a different ideological mindset to the table. In his version of white Christian nationalism, an apocalyptic collapse of society from epidemics or from anything else will best be dealt with by the rising up of Christians, which will get the world back on a solid path to Heaven.
Agencies like the Food and Drug Administration have also played a crucial role in determining and enforcing policy designed to battle infectious disease. Just recently, Marty Makary—who did an ineffective 13-month stint as leader of that agency—was forced out.
During his tenure, drug companies got almost anything they wanted out of the FDA, while the protection the agency offered the public was minimal. Makary was a Trump favorite when appointed but grew out of favor as his incompetence became increasingly evident. Even RFK, Jr., advocated for his ouster.
The point is that agencies that head up the battle against infectious disease, agencies like the CDC and FDA, are being led by people who last only a short period of time. They are put in their posts by an administration that sees those jobs as rewards for loyalty rather than positions requiring expertise that provide the public protection from dangerous pathogens.
So, while the health news is focused on this or that version of the hantavirus right now, the real story should be that the people leading us in the battle for a healthy nation are taking us down a path we really don’t want to go. Getting rid of these people and those who put them in place is the task in the midterm elections. If we fail in this, we could end up in the apocalyptic nightmare some of them seek and expect.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
