Hiltzik: How conservative policies are undermining children's health through vaccine opposition, nutrition cuts, and healthcare restrictions
By
Michael Hiltzik
Summary
This opinion piece by Michael Hiltzik argues that conservative policies in the U.S. are systematically undermining children's health. It traces the assault from anti-vaccine campaigns and vaccine skepticism (fueled by figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and amplified during COVID-19) to cutbacks in nutrition assistance programs like WIC and SNAP, and narrowed access to healthcare including Medicaid and CHIP. The article connects these policies to broader ideological opposition to government safety nets, public health mandates, and social support for children, framing it as a political war on child welfare that contradicts America's stated values of protecting children.
Source
bskyHiltzik: How conservative policies are undermining children's health through vaccine opposition, nutrition cuts, and healthcare restrictionslatimes.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledIn the old days, before accepted medical protocols came under partisan assault, infants typically received a vitamin K shot to enhance blood-clotting capability and a few drops of an antibiotic to stave off eye infections before leaving the hospital, followed by a thorough round of vaccines against life-threatening diseases.
Americans assumed that 'whatever a family could afford, the country had already decided this child was worth protecting.'
The conservative assault on child health starts with the anti-vaccine campaign and proceeds to cutbacks in nutrition assistance and narrowed access to healthcare.
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