The wheel

"Re-inventing the wheel" is an expression which is possibly as old as the wheel itself. The reason the metaphor is so embedded in the culture is that the wheel is so perfectly suited to its function and so established for so long that tinkering with it is considered by all to be a fool's errand. The only exception to this universally accepted truth is the didactic setting where a non-circular wheel may be proposed, and students quickly learn that there is no alternative to the circular wheel.

And yet, here we are. An example of "circular-wheel-skepticism" is the long-brewing anti-vaccination movement which has finally got the upper hand over established medical facts in the form of the election of Donald Trump and the confirmation of Robert F Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health & Human Services. If you ask people born in the early twentieth century what the most significant development during their lives was, chances are that the vaccines against poliomyelitis and other communicable and devastating diseases would be high on the list. Unfortunately, those people are hard to find today and decades of freedom from diseases like polio, smallpox, measles, diphtheria etc. have eradicated the memory of the scourge of those diseases from the minds of the public, much like the diseases themselves. Autism has replaced those feared childhood diseases of the last century likely due to the lack of understanding of its causes and our inability to prevent or treat it. I don't want to deny that autism is a significant disorder deserving of our attention. Much is made of the "fact" that the incidence of autism is on the rise, without factoring in the fact that the increased awareness of this disease may be the reason more children are diagnosed. In any case, the number of children being vaccinated is certainly not on the rise. So, what is the basis for associating vaccines with autism? Turns out, a study published in 1998 "suggested" a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and the incidence of autism. Not only was the study retracted after review, but the author's medical license was revoked when it turned out the information in the study was false. However, apparently there are enough charlatans in the medical and legal professions to keep flogging this issue and it continues to have repercussions to this day. It is unfortunate and poignant that there is an outbreak of measles coinciding with RFK Jr's taking over at HHS. Of course, that doesn't stop him from continuing to spread the misinformation about vaccines. Who knows what else awaits us, an advanced first world country, on the communicable disease front. Also on the health front is the move to stop adding fluoride to drinking water. This is based on the fact that fluoride in high doses may cause learning disability and a decrease in IQ; never mind that in the right dose it significantly reduces tooth decay. Utah recently became the first state to ban fluoride in water in spite of the American Dental Association president advising against such a move. I guess the zeal for de-regulation means we are unable to ensure the right amount of fluoride in drinking water. The Republican response? Those who want fluoride in their water are free to add it on their own. This is what passes for American exceptionalism now.

Another example of re-inventing the wheel is the President's tariffs crusade. There is plenty of data showing the deleterious effects of tariffs on the economy. Exhibit A in this regard is the Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Hoover. It was meant to protect US businesses and industry from unfair foreign trade policies - sound familiar? The consensus among economists is that it deepened and prolonged the Great Depression. The idea that the strongest economy in the world needs to be protected against other countries' trade practices is laughable. But the Republican Party which claims to be the business-savvy party is standing by as its leader "carries out his election promises". Meanwhile, Trump persists in using tariffs as a cudgel against trading partners even as the stock market loses all its gains since the November election as a direct consequence of his actions.

As bad as the previous examples of tinkering with the wheel are, the President's apparent jettisoning of traditional allies and abandonment of Ukraine as it defends itself against Russian aggression are of even greater concern.

While the president claims the result of the last election was a mandate, I don't believe it was a blank check. Be that as it may, as long as congressional Republicans refuse to assert their role as a co-equal branch of government, we have no choice but to take a wait and see approach.

Undoubtedly, with regard to all the issues mentioned above, there is room for improvement. We could and should encourage research into the causes of autism instead of using the issue to denigrate vaccines wholesale. We could and should be using our significant leverage with traditional allies to influence their defense spending and trade policies. After all, the present trade agreement with Canada and Mexico (USMCA) was negotiated by Trump in his first term because he did not like NAFTA. The course we seem to have chosen is tantamount to throwing the baby out with the bath water - forgive the mixed metaphors! As long as we persist in tinkering with wheel design, it is going to be a bumpy ride - fasten your seat belts, middle-of-the-roaders.