{"id":832557,"date":"2025-03-08T13:13:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T19:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/08\/rfk-jr-wants-to-pause-infectious-disease-research-trump-just-gave-him-a-head-start\/"},"modified":"2025-03-08T13:13:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T19:13:25","slug":"rfk-jr-wants-to-pause-infectious-disease-research-trump-just-gave-him-a-head-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/08\/rfk-jr-wants-to-pause-infectious-disease-research-trump-just-gave-him-a-head-start\/","title":{"rendered":"RFK Jr. wants to pause infectious disease research. Trump just gave him a head start."},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump\u2019s administration<\/a> has created an existential crisis for several government agencies and departments \u2014 few more critical than the National Institutes of Health<\/a>. There already are reports detailing how deep cuts at the NIH<\/a> could curtail research into infectious diseases \u2014 a particularly disturbing development as bird flu spreads throughout the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

And as I read these reports<\/a>, I couldn\u2019t help but think that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump\u2019s pick to serve as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, is probably licking his chops over this. Because Kennedy is on the record as saying he\u2019d like to pause all infectious disease research in the country.<\/p>\n

Kennedy is on the record as saying he\u2019d like to pause all infectious disease research in the country.<\/p>\n

During his failed presidential campaign, as NBC News reported<\/a> back in 2023, Kennedy stated his intent to shut down infectious disease research if elected president.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna say to NIH scientists: God bless you all,\u201d Kennedy said. \u201cThank you for public service. We\u2019re going to give infectious disease a break for about eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a wild quote. Many folks need and deserve a break these days. Infectious diseases do not.<\/p>\n

But to hear Kennedy tell it, infectious disease research is some sort of distraction from chronic illness. After Kennedy made similar remarks at one of his confirmation hearings, NBC News reported on \u2014 and debunked<\/a> \u2014 Kennedy\u2019s false suggestion that the federal government provides ample money for infectious disease research but far less for study of chronic conditions, such as obesity. Here, it\u2019s worth noting that many infectious diseases are treated with vaccines, which Kennedy has made a career deriding<\/a> with conspiratorial nonsense.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s NIH cuts<\/a> may have been the result of a haphazard slash-and-burn strategy. But it can\u2019t be ignored how much they serve the interests of the man in line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ja’han Jones<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ja\u2019han Jones is an MSNBC blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut\u00a0Blog. He is a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include \u201cBlack Hair Defined\u201d and the \u201cBlack Obituary Project.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s administration has created an existential crisis for several government agencies and departments \u2014 few more critical than the National Institutes of Health. There already are reports detailing how deep cuts at the NIH could curtail research into infectious diseases \u2014 a particularly disturbing development as bird flu spreads throughout the U.S.\u00a0 And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":832558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26288,91],"tags":[45246,5583],"class_list":{"0":"post-832557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pause","8":"category-wants","9":"tag-pause","10":"tag-wants"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}