“When one individual inflicts bodily injury upon another such that death results, we call the deed manslaughter; when the assailant knew in advance that the injury would be fatal, we call his deed murder. But when society [knowingly] places hundreds of proletarians in such a position that they inevitably meet a too early and an unnatural death, … and yet permits these conditions to remain, its deed is murder just as surely as the deed of the single individual. … [Bourgeois] society in England daily and hourly commits what the working-men’s organs, with perfect correctness, characterise as social murder.” – Friedriech Engels, Condition of the Working Class in England

The U.S. was recently captivated by the Senate confirmation hearings of RFK Jr. A great deal has already been written regarding the dangerous and uninformed views of RFK Jr. Even his own family have criticized his efforts to undermine public health institutions. However, less has been written on how RFK Jr.’s ascension to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) encapsulates the concept of social death outlined above by Engels. Far from being a “Truth warrior,” RFK Jr. is another natural representative of monopoly capital and the deep contempt the ruling class has for working people.

The new administration’s assault on working people began immediately: ending remote work arrangements; eliminating various climate policies and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement; withdrawing from the World Health Organization; declaring a national emergency on the U.S.–Mexico border; recognizing only two sexes and eliminating prior transgender directives; terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in federal departments and agencies; rescinding a Biden executive order calling for the development of policies to lower drug costs for individuals in Medicare and Medicaid; and rescinding a Biden executive order protecting access to reproductive healthcare services following the repeat of Roe v. Wade.

The flurry of executive orders was only the beginning. The website ReproductiveRights.gov that helped women find reliable medical information and necessary care was shut down (fortunately, individuals can access the Center for Reproductive Rights at ReproductiveRights.org).

The new administration paused all Centers for Disease Control (CDC) science reports and suspended external communications by the CDC, the Federal Drug Administration, and the National Institutes of Health. The webpage outlining the current situation regarding the H5N1 bird flu is still up, but notes “CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.” Important updates related to the virus may be delayed or difficult to obtain from government institutions, if available at all, and may complicate the work of clinicians and researchers. Similarly, people may have to find alternative, reliable sources of information regarding incidents like the ongoing tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas.

Webpages focusing on LGTBQ rights, the Sexual & Gender Minority Research office at the NIH, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System by the CDC have disappeared, as well as AtlasPlus, an interactive tool for surveillance of HIV, viral hepatitis, STIs, and TB.

Targeted attack, broader assault

Taken together, these changes represent a targeted assault on vulnerable communities long demonized by the right. Yet, they are also examples of a broader attack on working people through the purposeful dismantling of public health institutions. The result is a dangerous veil in high quality, reliable scientific information that will handicap efforts to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks. The new administration’s actions highlight the contempt felt by monopoly capital for humans whose only value is in generating revenue and profit.

The flurry of executive actions and cabinet nominations portend struggles to minimize more permanent, legislative means of dismantling social institutions that merely get in the way of generating profit. Social death is not a new experience for working people. We know all too well we work too long, for too little pay, without proper leisure or rest, or means to properly care for themselves and one another in a system designed to do just that. A mass, working class movement needs to raise the banner: Stop murdering us!

The unfortunate reality of health insurance denials reinforces what working people viscerally know to be true: that their lives are not weighed equally to those of millionaires and billionaires. Alongside this attack on the sanctity of human life is the championing of artificial intelligence (AI) within medicine. The promises of improved efficiency and healthcare “experience” aside, doctors seem not to have learned that prior clinical tools were introduced without regulation, transparency, proof of effectiveness, or consideration of fairness and health equity. Yet, AI will be different.

Many clinicians already welcome the advance of AI into the clinic or hospital room either because of cynicism and apathy given their inability to exert any meaningful control over their work or because of their own ideological commitment to capitalism. Professional societies work to draft recommended guidance for the use of AI in medicine, as if that decision were theirs. Similarly to the unending and unfortunately largely successful effort to devalue medical education and training by replacing physicians with non-physicians, within the confines of capitalism, AI only has the capacity to squeeze more profits from workers. The promises of electronic health records went largely unrealized, but AI will be different.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, RFK Jr. spoke to the crisis faced by rural hospitals, invaluable places where healthcare workers provide lifesaving care to their communities, and touted AI as his prescription for struggling rural hospitals. The U.S. people should soon ready themselves never to see a human being during their treatment. Meanwhile, hospital administrators can rest comfortably without complaints of long hours, workplace protections, possible unionization, or the need to spend time with family. RFK Jr. supports depriving the sick, during periods of immense vulnerability, of human connection, a necessity of life.

The consequence of falling vaccination rates and poorer public health outcomes will, as is always the case, largely be shouldered by the poor and near-poor.

As unsurprising as RFK Jr.’s commitment to advancing the interest of monopoly capital via AI may be, he seeks to intensify, in Engels’ words, the “conditions in which [the working class] cannot live” with vaccine misinformation. The consequence of falling vaccination rates and poorer public health outcomes will, as is always the case, largely be shouldered by the poor and near-poor. Those with sufficient health insurance coverage and financial stability can afford to obtain and spread preventable illnesses, since they can take time off work and pay to seek medical treatment. Many are not so lucky.

Too many already struggle to afford the pittance of restrictive services we call health insurance, and one poorly timed illness, sick child, or workplace accident threatens to tip the scale toward bankruptcy. RFK Jr. feeds on the real suffering of those unable to receive needed care, which is compounded by the real or perceived indifference of clinicians.

Consequently, individuals retreat and conclude that only the individual can be trusted and relied upon. “Do your own research” and seeking recourse outside institutions are the natural, unbiased, and reliable means of obtaining the truth. In so doing, however, they become the veritable fish in a barrel for charlatans. For example, Dr. Oz, Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), continues to promote unproven substances for which he has a financial tie. Vitamins and supplements are not reviewed by the FDA for safety and efficacy like drugs are, and the supplement industry generates tens of billions of dollars each year.

At the same time, a fall in vaccination rates may help increase revenues for an industry that profits more from treating illnesses than preventing them.

Unsurprisingly, the Senate Finance Committee moved forward RFK Jr.’s nomination and he was subsequently confirmed by the full Senate. Despite his attempts to craft an image as a fierce maverick and defender of personal and parental freedom, RFK Jr. is, in the end, an ideological compatriot to monopoly capital. His bigoted and dangerous views are merely idiosyncratic. RFK Jr. is an illusion, a mirage propped up by monopoly capital.

To effectively challenge not just RFK Jr. and the Trump administration but the structure of monopoly capital that creates and sustains them requires building a mass working-class-led movement. It will be necessary to engage with both political parties insofar as it is necessary to defend what advances the working class still retain. At the same time, we must build and exert power outside the two capitalist parties, and reimagine the purpose and values of our public institutions in meeting the needs of society.

The opinions of the author do not necessarily reflect the positions of the CPUSA.

Images: RFK Jr. and the grim reaper by Fred Barr / CPUSA; Black Lives Matter protest Los Angeles, CA 2016. (Homeless Children’s Network)

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