Doctor: US government deliberately harming children through policy changes
9 reported1 unconfirmed
A critical care doctor with over 40 years of experience has written an opinion piece describing a series of policy changes by the current administration that he says are harming children in a deliberate, sequential manner. The doctor, Robert B Shpiner, a clinical professor at UCLA, points to reductions in routine childhood immunizations, cuts to food assistance programs, and changes to education oversight as part of a pattern. He notes that the routine childhood immunization schedule has been narrowed from 17 diseases to 11, with the hepatitis B birth dose removed. The administration’s budget would cut the fruit-and-vegetable benefit for small children in the WIC program from $26 a month to $10, and Head Start’s federal staff has been cut by about a fifth. The doctor also reports that 2 million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP since the president took office, according to Georgetown University’s count, and that the largest reduction to food stamps in the program’s 60-year history has begun pushing 4 million people off the rolls. Additionally, oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office for Civil Rights is being shifted to the Department of Justice, as part of a campaign promise to abolish the Department of Education.
What’s reported
The routine childhood immunization schedule has been narrowed from 17 diseases to 11, with the hepatitis B birth dose removed.
The administration’s budget would cut WIC’s fruit-and-vegetable benefit for small children from $26 a month to $10.
Head Start’s federal staff has been cut by about a fifth.
Two million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP since the president took office, per Georgetown University’s count; the federal government’s data shows a drop of at least 1.5 million.
The largest reduction to food stamps in the program’s 60-year history has begun pushing 4 million people off the rolls.
A billion-dollar program buying locally grown produce for school cafeterias was cancelled last year.
Oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is being moved to the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office for Civil Rights is being shifted to the Department of Justice.
States no longer have to report whether children on Medicaid have been immunized.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr asked a federal appeals court to fast-track review of a March ruling that froze his vaccine changes, after a judge found 13 of his 15 new advisers unqualified.
Open questions
No official has said how many children are expected to lose coverage, according to the article.
Key figures
Robert B Shpiner, clinical professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Robert F Kennedy Jr, health secretary
Sources: The Guardian
