By April Ryan

“When you erode trust you lose your democracy because it is based on trust,” according to Black Obama Administration Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. She is responding to the United States Senate’s confirmation of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer is the new face of healthcare in America. He was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote split along party lines, 52-48. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats opposing the nomination. The Alabama-based former Surgeon General declares, “We’ve had anti-vaxxers for years, but they became prominent during COVID,” creating “new” trust issues.

From Benjamin’s professional understanding, “that’s when we started to see people not trust science,” loudly. Her position is that as health matters changed over time so did the medical responses. Controversy swirls around Kennedy’s anti-vaccination stance, however, he is lauded for his posture on preventative medicine. Benjamin is hopeful Kennedy will focus on prevention as she denotes it is “the key to solving many problems in our healthcare system.” When Benjamin was the nation’s top doctor from 2009 to 2013, the Obama administration released a national prevention strategy, which she deemed “a roadmap.” During that job, she worked to move Americans “from sickness and disease to one of health and wellness.”  Benjamin is hopeful that this new administration will “focus more on prevention.”

One of the pressing issues Secretary Kennedy will face is the shortage of healthcare professionals.  “We’ve had workforce issues for a long time. The number of doctors, the number of nurses and we don’t have enough to cover everyone.” Benjamin points out there are regional issues with a lack of healthcare professionals. “You see those decreases particularly in rural areas.”  There is a short-term fix according to Benjamin, “We have to turn to telemedicine because we don’t have [enough] doctors.” She cautions, ” It will get worse before it gets better.” With February being American Heart Month, Benjamin recommends particularly for those in the Black community to “be as healthy as you can…so you can be resilient and respond to things.”  She acknowledges that overall when it comes to our health and wellbeing, “we have to train ourselves where to go for trusted information.”

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