County Health Officer Counters Trump Administration’s Messaging and Politicization of Health and Science

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Photo courtesy of Dr Berry [/caption]

News by Scott France

“You have a higher chance of becoming homeless than you do of becoming a millionaire.”  This was one of many sobering messages about the current state of public health, vaccines and homelessness spoken by Dr. Allison Berry, Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) health officer to the audience at the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting on December 1.

JCPH and Dr. Berry are taking up the battle to protect county residents from the harmful consequences of the Trump administration’s dismantling of long-established public health policies and practices, and its deliberate misinformation campaign related to vaccines, science and homelessness. She spoke about these issues to the BOCC and subsequently to The Beacon.

Causes and Effects of Homelessness

“All of the actions that we are seeing at the federal and state level that are cutting access to food benefits, healthcare, and to domestic violence services are likely to lead us to a dramatic increase in homelessness,”  Berry said.

Berry said that many of the ideas and rhetoric around forcing people into treatment or into encampments is based on several layers of misunderstanding about what causes homelessness.

“A common understanding that occurs among individuals, including many well-intentioned folks, is that everyone who is homeless is addicted to drugs and has a serious mental health disorder, and that is patently false,” Berry said.

“Only roughly one-fifth of people who are currently homeless have a substance use disorder. Many people think that people are homeless because they are using drugs. Actually, many people start using drugs because they are living in a constant state of trauma, that their life is out of their control, and a lot of their basic needs are not met. Homeless youth are a lot more likely to use methamphetamines, because methamphetamines make you warm, not hungry, and they keep you awake.”

Berry also spoke to common misunderstandings about homelessness and mental health. She said that best estimates are that one-fifth of people that are living homeless have a serious mental health disorder, similar to the percentage of people who become homeless with a substance use disorder. “Many people who are homeless subsequently develop anxiety, depression, and PTSD because of the trauma they experience on the streets.”

“But the idea that people who are living outside are all severely ill and that they may be dangerous, is simply false. People living outside are there because they cannot afford to live inside. If you see a woman or a child who is living outside, the number one reason that they are doing so is because of domestic violence. So when you see anyone who meets that description, please approach them with a level of empathy that a person who has been through that needs.”

Berry said that solving homelessness can be achieved through adequate affordable housing, adequate income, adequate support services, funding for those services and a dramatic change in how we support people affected by domestic violence.

Berry acknowledged that many people don’t want to see homeless tents on the side of the road, “but there is nowhere else for them to go. They don’t want to be there. They want to be inside. We need to see the possibility that we could be in their shoes. Most of us don’t have a lot of savings. It’s just one bad medical bill, one bad accident, one bad relationship away from making us have to live outside.”

The Attack on Science

Berry expressed deep concern over  the Trump administration’s systematic undermining of structures, policies, and practices of federal institutions that have long protected Americans from disease, illness, and death, and also promoted substantial advances of science across the medical and health spectrum.

She pointed to the “mass defunding and mass firings of the professional scientists that worked at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and replacing them with political appointees who have no experience that’s relevant to their profession.“ She said that the main qualification of new appointees is “to be loyal to the people who put them in that position, and say what they’re told to say. It is not something we have ever seen before at the CDC.”

“Unfortunately, we now have people in positions of authority who are not qualified to interpret the science of what’s in front of them,” Berry said. “They are putting things on websites that we know are patently untrue, and they are saying these things with confidence.”

Berry said that a statement recently added to the CDC‘s websites, stating that we can’t prove that vaccines don’t cause autism, “is absolutely false.  Any possible connection between vaccines and autism has been thoroughly debunked for decades, hundreds of studies, thousands of participants have looked for a possible connection between vaccines and autism, and it just doesn’t exist”.

“Most parents just want to make the right choice for their kids. I want to be clear to parents that there’s no data that vaccines autism,”Berry said. She also noted that  the new FDA Commissioner, Marty Makary, is not trained in his field, and, according to Berry, has a long history of spreading misinformation, rumors and inaccurate information.

“Vaccines are the safest medical intervention that we have. Parents, please know, there is no data suggesting an increased risk to children of autism, other neurologic abnormalities, cardiac issues, or of death.” Berry said.

Flu Season

Berry, who has a private family medicine practice, said that noticeably more patients are seeking clarification around the confusing messages coming from the CDC. Additionally, vaccine supply has been more difficult to find. She encourages people who are encountering difficulty getting vaccinated to contact JCPH.

Dr. Berry had a bit of good news, stating that rates of COVID-19 in our region are relatively low.  “But the virus that’s on the rise is influenza,” she said. “

”If you have not gotten your flu shot, now is the time to get it. It’s recommended for everyone six months and up. We tend to see the most severe cases in our elderly population, those who are immune suppressed, and in kids under five. This is likely to be a more severe influence season than in past seasons, and that’s because of the subtype of influenza we’re seeing now, the H3N2.” Barry added that wearing masks significantly reduces the possibility of transmitting viruses.

Berry’s words are a sobering reminder of the fragile nature of many people’s economic, health and housing situations. She sees her role to not only promote better health for all, but also to increase clarity and understanding of various health and situational causes and effects that can help us all elevate our understanding and care for each other.

“The most important thing I want people to know is that homeless people are people, she said. “They're just like the rest of us. They are no more dangerous than us.”