In a single week the Legislature will kick off a particular session known as by Gov. Gavin Newsom to arrange the state for President-elect Donald Trump. CalMatters reporters drill into two specific points the place California’s insurance policies may conflict with the Trump administration: public well being and immigration.
RFK Jr. and vaccination: California Democratic officers are already bracing for potential public well being court docket battles over abortion, transgender well being care and Medi-Cal assist. However Trump’s choose for U.S. Secretary of Well being and Human Providers — former environmental lawyer and controversial vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — may additionally have an effect on California’s vaccination efforts.
As CalMatters well being reporter Ana B. Ibarra explains, Kennedy has a historical past of creating false claims about medication, such because the often debunked assertion that vaccines are linked to autism. In 2019, he joined anti-vaccine activists in Sacramento to unsuccessfully oppose a invoice to crack down on doubtful medical exemptions for childhood vaccines.
As of late, Kennedy has considerably softened his distrust of vaccines, telling NBC Information earlier this month that, “If vaccines are working for somebody, I’m not going to take them away.” But when confirmed as well being secretary, he may embolden anti-vaccine Californians who undermine the state’s public well being insurance policies.
As well being secretary, he’d have the facility to assist resolve whether or not to withhold federal funding that helps pay for states’ vaccination efforts; appoint members of an advisory committee that makes suggestions on immunization practices; and restrict entry to new vaccines.
Learn extra about Kennedy’s potential impacts on vaccine coverage in Ana’s story.
Mass deportation: Advocates warn that Trump’s pledges to deport a million individuals a yr — which the American Immigration Council estimates may price taxpayers and the financial system $88 billion yearly — will threaten extra than simply undocumented immigrantsstudies CalMatters’ Wendy Fry
Different distinct teams are in danger too: Non-citizens who’ve had brushes with the legal justice system, together with ones from a long time in the past; the roughly 1.3 million individuals within the U.S. who’ve been issued last orders of elimination; and undocumented individuals who could reside or work close to these two teams.
Although California turned the primary “sanctuary state” to assist immigrant communities throughout Trump’s first time period, its protections aren’t as robust as another states. State jail workers, for instance, nonetheless coordinate with federal immigration brokers about inmates of their custody, and Newsom’s clemency charge to pardon immigrants and defend them from deportation is decrease than some earlier governors.
Be taught extra about who’s in danger underneath Trump’s deportation plan in Wendy’s story.
And as a part of our partnership with PBS SoCal, Wendy and video technique director Robert Meeks have a video section on Wendy’s story on the anxieties immigrant households ready to enter the U.S. are experiencing on account of Trump’s reelection. Watch it right here.
SoCalMatters airs at 5:58 p.m. weekdays on PBS SoCal.
