PIVOT Statement: Trump and Kennedy are attacking our health
/September 6, 2025
Donald Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), have put our lives at risk. They fired Dr. Susan Monarez, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This led to the resignation of top CDC leaders with decades of experience. Thus, the Trump administration has beheaded the organization keeping us safe in the war against infections.
Kennedy also said only people over 65 or have serious illness should get the COVID shot. Health insurance companies use HHS and CDC policies to pay for vaccines. This means that many Americans who want a COVID shot will have to pay. Trump and Kennedy are playing politics with our lives and the lives of our children.
In 1946, the US government created the CDC to deal with infectious diseases. Back then, the leading causes of deaths were heart disease, infections, and cancer. Among children, infections were by far the leading cause of death. Common infections that sickened and killed many children included polio, measles, mumps,rubella, whooping cough, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. One out of 20 babies died before they reached their first birthday.
Today, only one out of 200 babies die in the first year. Most Americans do not die from infections. We owed this amazing achievement to our researchers and our public health system, which is led by the CDC. But as we all know from the COVID-19 pandemic, devastating infections are never far away. We need a strong CDC to prevent and limit the spread of infections to keep Americans healthy.
Some Americans resent the CDC because of the pandemic policies. We must remember how scary it was in April 2020 with thousands of people dying weekly. Masking, social distancing, and school closures were the only ways we all could think of to stay safe. The President at the time? Donald Trump. To his credit, his administration helped with the rapid development of the effective COVID-19 vaccine.
Still, over 100 million Americans got COVID and 1.1 million died. Imagine how many more would have perished if the CDC was weakened? If we did not invest in health research?
During Kennedy’s testimony in front of the US Senate this week, he credited Trump for the lives saved by the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, he refused to explain why he is limiting access to the vaccine. He also did not explain why he cut 500 million dollars from the budget to develop new vaccines to protect us from infections. Kennedy’s actions are so alarming that Republican Senators criticized him publicly.
There is a Vietnamese saying “phòng bệnh hơn chữa bệnh” or “prevention is better than cure.” Anyone who has been sick would agree. Yet, it is hard for us to appreciate when our public health system has kept us safe. When prevention works, we do not even know that it did. We end up worrying about the downside of prevention, like getting side effects from vaccines. Make no mistake, there is a huge price for us to pay for NOT preventing infections .
We know the results of the Trump administration’s making preventive health a political issue. Measles was eliminated from the US in 2000 due to an effective vaccine. In 2025, there are outbreaks in many states. Whooping cough, another deadly disease prevented by a vaccine, is at the highest level since 2017. Pediatricians fear we will again see children paralyzed as a result of not getting the polio vaccine. A disorganized and underfunded CDC makes this a possibility. A weakened CDC also will not be able to monitor these diseases so we know what to do.
Another Vietnamese proverb is “sức khỏe là vàng” or “health is gold.” Our health, especially our children’s health, is our most valuable possession. Do not let Trump and Kennedy take it away. Let your elected representative know how important the CDC and vaccinations are.