The British medical journal The Lancet after undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the health and environment impacts of Donald Trump’s presidency, estimated that rollbacks of environmental and workplace protections led to 22,000 excess deaths in 2019 alone. The 22,000 additional 2019 deaths occurred largely in states that voted for Trump, while Democratic states such as California and New York had their own laws that acted as a safety net. They also found that 40% of U.S. deaths during 2020 from Covid-19 would have been avoided if the country’s death rate had been closer to that of its G7 peers.
The report noted that Trump rolled back 84 vital regulations covering everything from toxins in water to the way scientific research gets used by the federal government, with 20 more rule changes still in progress by the end of his term. The resulting increase in airborne particulate matter was the primary cause of the excess deaths, the authors concluded.
The authors note, for example, that American life expectancy rates have been declining compared to other high-income nations since the 1980s. But instead of moving to solve this decline, the report argues that the former president specifically exploited low- and middle-income White people’s anger over their deteriorating prospects to mobilize the racial animus and xenophobia that propelled his political success.
The report also emphasizes the racial disparities in health that grew under Trump, including the fact that most of the 2.3 million Americans who lost health insurance while he was in office were minorities.
Trump’s environment policies killed thousands, scientists say | Climate Change News | Al Jazeera
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