Surprised That No One Is Talking About The Line, "Together, We Will End The Chronic Disease Epidemic

Surprised that no one is talking about the line, "Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free." from the inauguration speech. On the surface, it sounds like a really good thing! Like, hey we're going to find cures and provide treatments for all these chronic illnesses that people are suffering from!

However, given who's saying it, I'm guessing it's a lot more sinister. Since funding research is expensive and Trump is greedy and also ableist, I'm guessing it's more along the lines of 'chronic illness rates will go down if we don't report them and also if everyone who has one is dead'.

In fact, he's working on this already by

Reversing previously established health care policies, like Medicaid and Medicare prescription caps

NBC News

Trump reverses Biden policies on drug pricing and Obamacare

The moves are likely to be inconsequential to many people in terms of what they pay in out-of-pocket health care costs.

Directing health agencies to stop communicating

CNN

Trump administration directs federal health agencies to pause communications | CNN

Amid a deluge of executive actions, the Trump administration has directed federal health agencies to pause external communications, such as

Those of us with disabilities and chronic illnesses are often very vulnerable financially and in other ways and can be reliant on others for our care. It is hard for us to organize or advocate for ourselves due to our health challenges and restrictions. We're largely out of society's view already.

The continued impact of COVID and the threat of potential future epidemics and pandemics, especially if they're being set up to be mismanaged by the Trump administration, is a huge threat to not only those of us who are already ill, but to everyone. Anyone can become chronically ill, even you.

Anyways, the point is, please don't forget about us. Please include us in your efforts to protect those affected by all of this.

If you, like me, have a chronic illness, disability, mental illness, neurodivergency, or are part of any other vulnerable health-related minority, don't lose hope. There's goodness in the world still and we need to be here to see it and to add to it. It's not easy and it's not going to be easy, but it's important. I love you.