Donald J. Trump’s second presidency may significantly alter health care and public health in Minnesota, especially if Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
gets the opportunity to bring his vaccine skepticism to federal agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Trump’s pledge to let Kennedy “go wild” on those agencies drew concerns from former Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm, especially as declining vaccinations caused Minnesota to have the second-most measles cases among U.S.
states this year. She said Kennedy was a denier of established science, and that his efforts to influence federal health care policies won’t help win back skeptics who lost faith in public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve got to rebuild trust in science and public health, and things that really are meant to protect all of us, and not just some of us,” said Malcolm, who served as commissioner under Minnesota Govs.
Tim Walz and Jesse Ventura. “I don’t know how you do that if you can’t agree that there are facts. We can disagree until the moon turns blue about what to do about the facts, but if we don’t even agree there are facts, I don’t know how you solve anything.
” Dr. Scott Jensen, who sees patients in Watertown, Minnesota, and ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for governor in 2022, disagreed, calling Trump the “breath of fresh air we need” and Kennedy the right person to rebuild trust by forcing overdue conversations about the safety of vacc.
