{"id":2309,"date":"2020-03-07T15:45:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T15:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2309"},"modified":"2020-03-07T15:45:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T15:45:38","slug":"what-mike-pences-public-health-record-says-about-his-ability-to-lead-on-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2309","title":{"rendered":"What Mike Pence\u2019s public health record says about his ability to lead on coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“In 2011, a Congress member from Indiana helped pass federal legislation<\/a> to strip funding from Planned Parenthood.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two years later, the last Planned Parenthood affiliate in Scott County, Indiana, closed its doors because of budget cuts. It was also the last HIV testing center<\/a> in the county. By 2015, an HIV outbreak was brewing in the state. At the peak of the outbreak, 20 new cases were being diagnosed per week, with a total of nearly 200 cases eventually reported, according to HuffPost<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that Congress member, who became Indiana\u2019s governor, didn\u2019t want to authorize a needle-exchange program to stop the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe effective anti-drug policy involves handing out drug paraphernalia,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Indiana governor was, of course, Mike Pence. Now he\u2019s the vice president, and on Wednesday, President Trump put him in charge of fighting coronavirus in the US.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In general, the administration has sought to restrict funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups, reproductive health advocates say, without regard to the public health implications. The administration\u2019s policies have already made it harder for low-income Americans to get screening for conditions like breast and cervical cancer. And some fear that, especially with Pence in charge, the administration could put politics over science when it comes to coronavirus response too.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Finally, over two months after the HIV outbreak was reported, Pence said he would pray on the issue, according to the New York Times<\/a>. Two days later, he issued an executive order for syringes to be distributed in Scott County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distribution helped stop the epidemic, according to the Times. But Pence didn\u2019t actually allocate new money for the program, or for fighting the epidemic generally, forcing state officials to cut other health programs, Meyerson said: \u201coverall, his governorship showed that he did not commit to an adequately funded public health infrastructure.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Last year, the administration issued a rule<\/a> barring Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform or refer for abortions from getting federal funding through Title X, a program aimed at providing family planning services to low-income Americans. As a result, nearly 1,000 health centers<\/a> around the country have lost funding, making it harder for many Americans to get necessary services like cancer screening or HIV tests.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Also in 2017, six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS resigned in protest<\/a>, with one writing in Newsweek<\/a> that \u201cthe Trump administration has no strategy to address the ongoing H.I.V.\/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate H.I.V. policy, and \u2014 most concerning \u2014 pushes legislation that will harm people living with H.I.V. and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2019, the Trump administration cut funding for fetal-tissue research<\/a>, despite long-standing arguments<\/a> by scientific and medical experts that such research is crucial for developing vaccines and treatments for diseases. Research into AIDS and other conditions has already suffered as a result<\/a>, Carter said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/2\/28\/21156158\/mike-pence-coronavirus-trump-administration-hiv-science<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In 2011, a Congress member from Indiana helped pass federal legislation to strip funding from Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n

Two years later, the last Planned Parenthood affiliate in Scott County, Indiana, closed its doors because of budget cuts. It was also the last HIV testing center in the county. By 2015, an HIV outbreak was brewing in the state. At the peak of the outbreak, 20 new cases were being diagnosed per week, with a total of nearly 200 cases eventually reported, according to HuffPost.<\/p>\n

But that Congress member, who became Indiana\u2019s governor, didn\u2019t want to authorize a needle-exchange program to stop the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe effective anti-drug policy involves handing out drug paraphernalia,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That Indiana governor was, of course, Mike Pence. Now he\u2019s the vice president, and on Wednesday, President Trump put him in charge of fighting coronavirus in the US.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“In general, the administration has sought to restrict funding to Planned Parenthood and other groups, reproductive health advocates say, without regard to the public health implications. The administration\u2019s policies have already made it harder for low-income Americans to get screening for conditions like breast and cervical cancer. And some fear that, especially with Pence in charge, the administration could put politics over science when it comes to coronavirus response too.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Finally, over two months after the HIV outbreak was reported, Pence said he would pray on the issue, according to the New York Times. Two days later, he issued an executive order for syringes to be distributed in Scott County.<\/p>\n

The distribution helped stop the epidemic, according to the Times. But Pence didn\u2019t actually allocate new money for the program, or for fighting the epidemic generally, forcing state officials to cut other health programs, Meyerson said: \u201coverall, his governorship showed that he did not commit to an adequately funded public health infrastructure.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Last year, the administration issued a rule barring Planned Parenthood and other groups that perform or refer for abortions from getting federal funding through Title X, a program aimed at providing family planning services to low-income Americans. As a result, nearly 1,000 health centers around the country have lost funding, making it harder for many Americans to get necessary services like cancer screening or HIV tests.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“Also in 2017, six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS resigned in protest, with one writing in Newsweek that \u201cthe Trump administration has no strategy to address the ongoing H.I.V.\/AIDS epidemic, seeks zero input from experts to formulate H.I.V. policy, and \u2014 most concerning \u2014 pushes legislation that will harm people living with H.I.V. and halt or reverse important gains made in the fight against this disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in 2019, the Trump administration cut funding for fetal-tissue research, despite long-standing arguments by scientific and medical experts that such research is crucial for developing vaccines and treatments for diseases. Research into AIDS and other conditions has already suffered as a result, Carter said.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[521,519,81,73,518,517,520],"class_list":["post-2309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-abortion","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hiv","tag-mike-pence","tag-planned-parenthood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2310,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2309\/revisions\/2310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}