Olivia Troye - The Ghost of Pandemics Past
I lived it. I was inside the Trump administration during the first term, working on national security and pandemic response as COVID-19 swept across the country. I saw firsthand how politics took precedence over public health, how expertise was sidelined, and how critical decisions were shaped by electoral considerations rather than the well-being of the American people. Now, in Trump’s second term, the same troubling patterns are emerging—only this time, they are deliberate, systematic, and more dangerous than before.
During COVID-19, Trump routinely dismissed the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and pressured health agencies to downplay the severity of the virus. I witnessed how the administration attempted to control messaging, sometimes rewriting guidance for political purposes. Public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Deborah Birx, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, became targets of Trump’s attacks whenever their advice contradicted his political goals. Science was subjugated to ideology.
Fast forward to 2025, and we are seeing a deliberate effort to reshape public health institutions. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vocal critic of vaccines, is now at the helm as Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is the same RFK Jr. who fueled vaccine misinformation during the pandemic, contributing to the rise of the anti-vaccine movement. His appointment was an overt signal that Trump’s second-term health policy will be dictated by conspiracy theorists rather than scientific consensus.
This isn’t just an echo of the past—it’s an escalation. Where the first term sought to control and manipulate health agencies, this term seeks to dismantle and remake them in the image of a more extreme and controlled ideology.
https://www.livingitwitholiviatroye.com/p/the-ghost-of-pandemics-past
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