Gee, Turns Out Americans Don’t Trust Trump And Friends Very Much On Health Issues

I’ve been thinking lately about the way many of the poorly informed tend to repeat and repeat and repeat the same lines and phrases and sentiments over and over again, practically by rote. For instance, they act as if it were common knowledge that Dr. Anthony Fauci committed COVID crimes and needs to be prosecuted for them. These crimes are largely “recommending that certain actions be taken, based on the best scientific understanding at the time,” most of which turned out to be entirely correct.

Still, despite this propaganda onslaught, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index, it turns out that more Americans trust Dr. Fauci on health matters (and he’s still underwater at 45 percent trust) than trust Trump (32 percent), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (30 percent), Elon Musk (25 percent), Mehmet Oz (23 percent), Jay Bhattacharya (15 percent), or Marty Makary (14 percent).

Whoops!

Only 32 percent of Americans trust Trump on healthcare — and they trust his appointees even less. This would mean that people who voted for him did not trust him on healthcare, and do not trust those he has put in charge of health care (or, you know, taking it away from veterans).

Though, to be fair, it would be at least a little bit weird if you voted for Trump and were actually concerned with health care beyond ensuring that you will still be able to go down to the tractor supply store and buy all the apple flavored horse ivermectin you can fit in your knockoff Vera Bradley bag. I don’t think people voted for him for that reason so much as they voted for getting to see bad things happen to undocumented immigrants and trans people.

After all, his only comment on the subject was that he had “concepts of a plan.”

Indeed, the survey found that only 70 percent of Republicans said they trust Trump on health issues (also seven percent of Democrats somehow?).

People interviewed for the survey were largely supportive of RFK Jr.’s plans for safe food, seeing “chemicals and unsafe additives as a bigger health risk than climate change or infectious diseases.” (And yet only one of those things can, in fact, be corrected at the consumer level.)

However, what they didn’t like was … literally everything else he wants to do.

But support for his other positions is low. Just over a quarter of the public (29%) supports removing fluoride from water supplies. About 1 in 5 (18%) back ending vaccine requirements for attending public schools. One quarter (24%) support firing science staff at the FDA and NIH. And 1 in 5 (19%) would reduce testing requirements before allowing new drugs or therapies to be sold to the public.

Yeah, um — you know what’s maybe not a great idea if you care about food safety? Firing the science staff at the FDA. Or picking Marty Makary to head that up. Reducing regulations? That’s not great, and neither is giving billionaires a free pass to murder the environment, where much of our food grows.

The survey also found that

• Presented with a choice between Musk’s and Kennedy’s positions, 60% support increasing food safety inspections to 37% cutting federal spending by $2 trillion.

• Majorities want to see public health programs strengthened, including 72% for food safety inspections, 71% for the Veterans Health Administration, 64% for Medicare, 57% for the CDC and 54% for Medicaid.

• 73% say the Affordable Care Act should be strengthened or left as it is.

Well, absolutely none of that will be happening (except for possibly the part about cutting federal spending by $2 trillion, or “a quarter of everything the government buys”).

I mean — one of the big things for RFK Jr. is loosening restrictions on raw milk, which could kill you, give you salmonella or give you bird flu, none of which sound like a great time.

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Once again, people clearly prefer left-wing policies and right-wing politicians. Unfortunately, a lot of people are going to have to learn the hard way that voting for people just because they’ll make the people you hate miserable may very well result in you being pretty miserable as well. Or, you know, getting food poisoning.

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