Monday, July 9, 2018

Trump administration opposes breast feeding

That is not a misleading headline.  Actually, it is worse than that.  The delegates to the World Health Assembly in Geneva were surprised when American officials threatened Ecuador, the sponsor of a resolution to encourage breast feeding, with trade sanctions if it did not drop its sponsorship.

Breast feeding instead of formula use would save hundreds of thousands of babies, since the water used to mix the formula is often bacteria-laden or the formula isn't used right.  Breast feeding also helps with immunity to certain diseases.

On the other hand, American companies that make the formulas would lose millions of dollars.  And wee know what is important here, don't we?

Some Trump policies are stupid.  Some are misguided.  Some like this breast feeding policy are just immoral, even criminal.  I think this is a far bigger story than which right-wing toady was picked for the Supreme Court.

[If you want to read the whole sorry story, see Andrew Jacobs, "U.S. Delegation Disrupts Accord on Breast Milk, New York Times, (July 9, 2018), pp. A1, A7.]

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