I’m a critical care doctor. I’ve never seen the US harm its children this deliberately | Robert B Shpiner
Summary
A critical care doctor with over 40 years of experience writes that recent changes in U.S. government programs and policies are reducing protections and support for children. These include fewer required vaccines at birth, cuts to nutrition and education programs, and weaker oversight of children's health and rights.Key Facts
- The routine childhood vaccines required at birth have been reduced from 17 diseases to 11, removing the hepatitis B birth dose.
- Hepatitis B infection caught in infancy often causes lifelong serious liver disease, which is why the vaccine is given on the first day of life.
- Refusals of the vitamin K shot, which prevents dangerous newborn bleeding, nearly doubled from 2017 to 2024.
- The government plans to cut the WIC program’s fruit-and-vegetable benefit for small children from $26 to $10 per month.
- Head Start, a program for poor preschoolers, faced proposed elimination or funding freezes, and federal staff were reduced by about 20%.
- Two million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program compared to when President Donald Trump took office.
- A large reduction to food stamps has pushed 4 million people, including many parents, off the rolls recently.
- Oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will move from the Department of Education to the Department of Health and Human Services, and civil rights enforcement to the Department of Justice without clear explanation.
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