Trump and RFK Are Presiding Over a Massacre of the Innocents

In August 2025, the Mississippi State Division of Well being (MSDH) declared rising toddler mortality within the state a public well being emergency. According to the MSDH, “2024 knowledge reveals the general toddler mortality fee has elevated to 9.7 deaths per 1,000 dwell births, which is the best in additional than a decade. In Mississippi, 3,527 infants have died earlier than the age of 1 since 2014.”

Mississippi at the moment has the best toddler mortality fee in the US, and double the average of the countries that comprise the Group for Financial Co-operation and Improvement. The MSDH mentioned that it declared a public well being emergency as a result of it “acknowledged the urgency of this disaster and couldn’t wait to take motion.” A public well being emergency permits MSDH to mobilize extra sources and garner the eye and collaboration of extra companions. It’s a cry within the wilderness, talking the reality in regards to the destiny of kids not solely in Mississippi however in lots of different states across the nation with excessive toddler mortality charges, like Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Ohio.

However the public well being professionals in Mississippi and elsewhere are going through an uphill battle, as a result of state and federal insurance policies are making their work nearly inconceivable. For example, Medicaid enlargement is a powerful tool in improving infant mortality, however Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves has refused to expand Medicaid, which covers 60 p.c of births within the state. Even with an extension of postpartum care below Medicaid in Mississippi to as much as a 12 months, many poor girls will stay uninsured between pregnancies.

Moreover, cuts to Medicaid in Trump’s Large Stunning Invoice can even depart up to 40,000 more Mississippians without coverage. And the Trump administration has all however destroyed the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) by decimating staff on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Division of Reproductive Well being. PRAMS is important to gathering knowledge on maternal and toddler well being earlier than, throughout, and after being pregnant. It additionally shapes insurance policies and interventions for states throughout the nation, together with Mississippi, which has needed to droop its personal knowledge assortment efforts within the midst of its public well being emergency.

Although the GOP likes to think about itself pro-family, the maternal and toddler mortality knowledge throughout the US tells a unique story. The insurance policies enacted by Republican state legislatures strongly contribute to the poor maternal and infant health outcomes in these jurisdictions.

This has been true for a really very long time. However Trump’s struggle on public well being is making issues an entire lot worse, an entire lot extra shortly. Many in public well being have been reeling over the assaults on vaccination by RFK Jr. and his cronies, as evidenced by their refusal to advocate Covid vaccination for pregnant folks and infants this summer time. Final week, RFK Jr.’s hand-picked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) sowed misinformation and doubts in regards to the mixed measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, and was poised to meddle with toddler vaccination for hepatitis B as properly, main many medical societies to break with ACIP as soon as once more.

However nobody was ready for the double whammy of this week’s gonzo press convention on the White Home, the place President Trump made false claims about vaccines and acetaminophen inflicting autism. Because the eminent bioethicist Arthur Caplan has said:

The announcement on autism was the saddest show of a scarcity of proof, rumors, recycled outdated myths, awful recommendation, outright lies, and harmful suggestions by anybody in authority on the earth claiming to know something about science that I’ve ever witnessed. And that’s saying one thing, since I’m 76 years outdated. Amongst different issues, I watched Trump gurgle on about taking bleach throughout Covid.

Vaccines don’t cause autism. Whereas the case on acetaminophen is more complicated, probably the most convincing knowledge suggests there isn’t a affiliation. Specifically, whereas some research have proven an affiliation, genetics or different confounding elements may bias these outcomes. To deal with this potential skew, a big Swedish research of close to 2.5 million children used sibling controls to handle the position of genetics and parental well being, and located that the connection between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism disappeared.

Thus, the statements by President Trump and the actions he’ll take to discourage acetaminophen use in being pregnant are irresponsible at greatest, and harmful at worst. Why? Because “untreated fever, particularly within the first three months of being pregnant, will increase the danger of miscarriage, start defects and untimely start” and nonsteroidal inflammatory medicine (e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen) in being pregnant current well-documented risks to the developing fetus. Thus, acetaminophen is the most secure choice for pregnant folks within the context of fever and ache, as medical societies were quick to level out of their corrections of the president’s rash statements.

Whereas earlier GOP insurance policies have endangered maternal and youngster well being, RFK Jr. and President Trump will certainly out-Herod Herod of their contributions to toddler mortality in the US. These two males—from their assaults on vaccination, now their assaults on a key drug utilized in being pregnant, to their dismantling of key applications that assist us perceive the dangers and problems of being pregnant in America to the applications that serve expectant moms and their well being and the well being of their kids—are presiding over a modern-day bloodbath of the innocents that ought to disgust and enrage us all.