If it’s Tuesday, there’s a Science Section of the NY Times<\/em>. Here’s the lead piece today. As about so many other things, many people (but in particular conservatives and MAGAfolk) live with the fantasy that the past was somehow better than the present. It’s selective memory and the glow of childhood, perhaps. It doesn’t stand up to evidence. Everyone smoked in the old days — my parents chain-smoked throughout my childhood. And even doctors smoked, in TV commercials — see here<\/a>. People forget.<\/p>\n NY Times, Gina Kolata, 13 Jan 2025<\/strong>: Have Americans Ever Really Been Healthy?<\/a>, subtitled “Medical historians say that the phrase ‘Make America Healthy Again’ obscures a past during which this country\u2019s people ate, smoked and drank things that mostly left them unwell.” [gift link] \u201cWe will make Americans healthy again,\u201d Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has declared<\/a>. A political action committee that has promoted Mr. Kennedy, President-elect Donald J. Trump\u2019s pick for health and human services secretary, says his movement is \u201cigniting a health revolution<\/a> in America.\u201d<\/p>\n But the word \u201cagain\u201d presumes a time in the country\u2019s past when Americans were in better health. Was there ever really a time when America was healthier?<\/p>\n For historians of medicine, there is a short answer.<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Nancy Tomes, a historian at Stony Brook University.<\/p>\n John Harley Warner, a historian at Yale, said, \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to think of a time when America, with all the real health disparities that characterize our system, was healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Because in earlier times, Americans smoked, drank, and ate monotonous food much more than we do now. Interesting things I didn’t know:<\/p>\n It\u2019s true that agriculture at the time was organic, food was locally produced and there were no ultraprocessed foods. But fresh fruits and vegetables were in short supply because they were difficult to ship and because growing seasons were so short. For the most part, Dr. Costa said, until the 1930s, \u201cAmericans were living off of dried fruits and vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n As for protein, Americans were relying on salted pork, she said, because meat was difficult to preserve. Only after the Civil War did meatpackers in Chicago begin to process meat and ship fresh beef across the country. At that point, Dr. Costa said, beef \u201cbecame a large part of the American diet.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With a bunch of historical photos (not in the print paper). Here’s one:<\/p>\n Caption: “An influenza camp in Lawrence, Mass., in 1918.”<\/p>\n A couple more excerpts:<\/p>\n Until the 1990s, cancer was treated with brute force: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Now an array of targeted therapies are turning some cancers, once deadly, into treatable chronic diseases or even curing them.<\/p>\n Dr. Greene said he was not surprised by the idea of a halcyon past when people were healthier.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a long history in America of nostalgia for a past that was better than the present,\u201d he said. \u201cHistory is all about erasure \u2014 the things we don\u2019t choose to remember.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And:<\/p>\n Yet the U.S. spends more on medical care than other countries \u2014 an average of $12,555 per capita<\/a>, which is about twice what other wealthy countries spend.<\/p>\n But, historians say, the past was actually much worse.<\/p>\n And so, they say, the phrase \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d makes no sense.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a historian of health, I don\u2019t know what \u2018again\u2019 Kennedy is imagining,\u201d Dr. Tomes said. \u201cThe idea that once upon a time all Americans were healthy is a fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \\\\\\<\/p>\n Related.<\/p>\n Washington Post, Catherine Rampell, 14 Jan 2025<\/strong>: Society is making you sick, GOP says. Too bad their plans will make you sicker.<\/a>, subtitled “‘Make America Healthy Again’ might be a laudable plan \u2014 if GOP policies didn\u2019t contradict GOP goals.”<\/p>\n The biggest threat to your health isn\u2019t your inability to afford an inhaler or to get that weird mole checked, the GOP argues. It\u2019s everything else<\/i> about American society, from nutrition to neurotoxins.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the party\u2019s agenda would make those other societal problems worse, too.<\/p>\n Republicans desperately want to cut taxes this year, which will be expensive. So, they\u2019re plotting to pay for the revenue loss (at least partly<\/a>) by slashing<\/a> the safety net. Among the biggest programs<\/a> on the chopping block<\/a>: Medicaid and Obamacare marketplace subsidies, which help low- to middle-income Americans purchase private-market insurance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With many details. Ending:<\/p>\n Of course, if Republican politicians really want to tackle a uniquely American social determinant of health, there\u2019s an obvious target: gun culture. Firearms are now involved in the deaths of more American children each year than any other injury or illness<\/a>, including car crashes or cancer. The United States has one of the highest rates of firearm mortality<\/a> among developed nations.<\/p>\n Alas, Republican officials have blocked<\/a> modest (and popular) gun safety measures, such as universal background checks<\/a>. They promise instead to expand access to firearms<\/a>. They rationalize this stance by arguing that gun violence is caused not by excessive access to guns but \u2014 wait for it \u2014 inadequate access to health care!<\/i><\/p>\n Untreated mental illness<\/a>, they say, is the real American killer. Which, somewhat inconveniently, suggests the solution is more programs to expand health coverage and care. What\u2019s the GOP response to that? Start this column over, I guess. Second verse, same as the first.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n \\\\<\/p>\n Are Republicans insane, or just dumb? Or, let me put it this way. Not all people are particularly smart. Some people do not see connections, they think of everything in black and white terms. And they are the ones who align with one end of the spectrum discussed in the book review I just posted. It’s not that Republicans are this way or that; it’s that people who are this way or that are Republicans. And those people will always be with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just finished a book write-up, so a relatively short post today about current events. MAGA delusions about health; How Republican policies will make things worse, and how they don’t realize this. If it’s Tuesday, there’s a Science Section of the … Continue reading ![](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/14\/climate\/13SCI-AGAIN-sub\/13SCI-AGAIN-sub-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/01\/10\/multimedia\/00SCI-AGAIN-05-hqtl\/00SCI-AGAIN-05-hqtl-superJumbo.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-apps\/imrs.php?src=https:\/\/arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/5WF75IRW7AIUNOHZZWTFPE7THI_size-normalized.jpg&w=916\")
<\/p>\n