The Trump Admin’s War on Data Is Compromising Major Health Advancements for Black Americans

[system1]

Originally published at: The Trump Admin’s War on Data Is Compromising Major Health Advancements for Black Americans - TPM – Talking Points Memo

Thanks to a 2009 medical breakthrough, researchers could be on the precipice of answering one reason why Black Americans are disproportionately diagnosed with kidney failure, and offering a solution to the issue. That discovery, doctors and researchers told TPM, may not have been possible without decades of analysis of federal race and ethnicity figures collected…

[benthere]

I think Mehmet Oz only has a doctorate in “Crudite Platter Preparation.” He seems to be ignorant of the “first do no harm” mandate.

[justruss]

Oz appeared to be an excellent surgeon despite a penchant for natural medicine. From what one of his early business partners said, it looks like fame and fortune just took over for Oz. Simply joining the Trump administration pretty much says he has put a lot of principle to the side to be there.

[sniffit]

“The Trump Admin’s War on Data Is Compromising Major Health Advancements for Black Americans”

That. Is. The. Goal.

[spiderpig]

The racist cruelty is the point.

[davidn]

@system1

“There’s a big difference between collecting information for the purposes of knowledge, and doing what I believe [the Trump administration] primarily opposes[s], which is any sort of selection of individuals for opportunities based upon race or ethnicity.”

The premise here is simply skewed. The bottom line is that Trumpian Republicans have a very racist agenda. And that means the health disparities that African Americans may suffer is at best meaningless to them.

@system1

Race is also important to help advance one of Trump’s marquee health goals from his first term: increasing home dialysis.

In July 2019, advocates celebrated Trump’s executive order on “advancing American kidney health” which included, among other goals, increasing the number of patients receiving dialysis at home instead of at a dialysis center.

The problem with this idea is that it assumes that Donald Trump acts in good faith regarding this goal. Also, it assumes that he has any kind of understanding of it at all, something that every other part of article shows that he does not.

@system1

“My goal in communicating with you is to do what’s best for people with kidney failure and do what’s best for the country,” Vassalotti said. “I don’t think that removing race in the demographics is consistent with what’s best for the country.”

A broadly correct statement, it is really impossible to be anti-science and/or deeply racist and also do what is needed for the best for the country. The article does a great job of reflecting this point with a concrete example of the issues.

Edit: I wanted to add that this article does a great job of illustrating how difficult it becomes to have honest discussions on how to move the country forward when one party becomes deeply entrenched in bad faith politics. None of the people wanting to have the discussion on kidney dialysis really want to politicize this issue, they just want to move forward for the people that need care. And they would never want to directly criticize politicians with a stated goal of helping with that. But all the other political goals of Republican party conflict with this. So how do reporters then report statements from the doctors and scientists that do not want this conflict, when really the crux of the matter is the deep racism of the Republican party?

[irasdad]

“…the Trump administration has eviscerated efforts to address systemic racism and sex and gender bias, purportedly out of adherence to meritocracy.”

Meritocracy?!

Has there ever been a more glaring, insulting, don’t-even-try-to-polish-that-turd poster boy of incompetent hacks “failing upward” than serial-failure Donald J. Trump – and his traveling freakshow of nepo-baby cranks, bleach-blond fembots, boot-licking crawlers, and grievance-huffing, addlepated Dunning-Krugerites?

Trump and meritocracy can’t even be said to have a passing acquaintance, let alone a working relationship.

[spiderpig]

This is art.

[ajm]

Being a good surgeon is somewhat like being a good Olympic athlete. It does not necessarily go with the ability to analyze data. It rewards making snap judgements because in the midst of surgery you have no other choice.

[justruss]

@irasdad

Has there ever been a more glaring, insulting, don’t-even-try-to-polish-that-turd poster boy of incompetent hacks “failing upward” than serial-failure Donald J. Trump – and his traveling freakshow of nepo-baby cranks, bleach-blond fembots, boot-licking crawlers, and grievance-huffing, addlepated Dunning-Krugerites?

Tell me there is a Hunter S. Thompson Writing award so we can nominate you for inclusion.

[jge]

Let’s call it what it is: it’s War on Black and Brown Americans.