Trump, Climate Change, and the Next Pandemics

 

This article was originally published on Daily Kos.

By Alan Singer

The election of Donald Trump will bring climate change deniers and vaccine skeptics into the new administration at the same time that global warming increases the threat of new pandemics. If Trump has his way, anti-vaxxers RFK Jr. will be heading Health and Human Services and David Weldon the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a vocal critic of COVID-19 restrictions, is projected as the next head of the National Institutes of Health. Lee Zeldin, who when he was in Congress repeatedly voted against clean air and water legislation, is Trump’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Administration. The E.P.A. will be at the center of Trump’s effort to reverse Biden era climate regulations.

While Donald Trump and his appointees prepare to undo environmental and health regulations, scientific studies conclude that more than half of the known human infectious diseases caused by viruses and bacteria will be aggravated by climate change. Disease causing pathogens will flourish as climate conditions change and will migrate into new areas where the human population has developed less immunity.

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Alan Singer is a historian and teacher educator at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. His most recent books are Social Studies for Secondary Schools, 5th edition (Routledge, 2024) and Class-Conscious Coal Miners (SUNY Press, 2024). Blogs, tweets, essays, interviews, and e-blasts present his views and not those of Hofstra University.