Silence, not optional

“The government rest on his shoulders. The government rest on his shoulders. The government rest on his shoulders” Isaiah 9:6. This verse is on repeat in my heart, mind, soul, and lips. I come to you a day early, because there is a senate hearing tomorrow that is most likely to be a earth shaker for me and my fellow chronic illness friends.

Now, I don’t like to go political on here, but I do feel like I am responsible for just giving some important critical facts. Otherwise what have I been doing for 37 years?!?

The new administration has already silenced some pretty big deal information centers, departments, people that are vital to the medical and health community. For example, the CDC has been silenced and cannot report and new research or data on diseases and viral and bacterial outbreaks – this includes the public and to all medical facilities. So data on how many flu, Covid, bird flu, etc cases are in your area… you know the data that we count on to compare year to year?

I don’t expect everyone to completely grasp how this affects almost every choice I have to make. When you have multiple compromised immune systems in your home, and you don’t know anything other than relying on this data, then it does feel like a threat on your well-being and life. Example: My acceptable, aka what digests at the moment, protein is chicken and turkey. That’s out the door with no oversight from the CDC and avian flu cases in my state. No reporting, no eating. Had food poisoning once, not taking a chance on having to go to the ER during a non-reporting time of rampant flu and covid season.

Now, you might say, “Anna, take a chill pill.” To which I would say, “Already done that!”

So, to some facts:

The CDC defines chronic illness as “conditions that last one year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both.”

5%-20% of children with a chronic condition are diagnosed within the first six months of their life. 1.5% of these children will develop other chronic diagnosis. (fyi: they CAN NOT prevent these!)

1 in 5 children are diagnosed with one of the following in early childhood: asthma, type 1 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, epilepsy, etc.

6 in 10 Americans have at least one chronic illness, 4 in 10 have two or more chronic diagnosis.

“Risk Factors” are smoking, poor nutrition, physical activity, excessive alcohol use. However, some are hereditary.

Those are the hard facts.

We’ve left the WHO, so research from other countries that have helped us in all veins of research is gone. This is a disappointment to me, you can have your own opinion.

Tomorrow, the nominee that will be in the senate hearing has stated he plans to do the following if confirmed:

Enforce more regulations on food manufacturing, ultra processed foods, and environmental pollution. Totally agree with this- I will be listening for who he will hand over the oversight to, because this is a BIG job! Since he plans to close most health institutes and research centers.

Slash research funding for all medical research, and instead use this money to end chronic disease within two years. Hmm, medical research has come so far in detecting disease faster and we have been able to treat faster and more efficiently… I would love to be cured of all my chronic yuck in two years, but it has been maintained for 37, and I don’t see it going anywhere other than “maintained,” or worse “unmaintained because of lack of medicine and research” Sorry folks.

He would call for a one year break from infectious disease research. This just blows my mind, because breakthroughs in chronic and infectious diseases go hand in hand.

Not to mention years of false claims about autism and vaccines. Don’t get me started with his thoughts on the Covid and polio vaccines! False claims about these life saving vaccines are deadly. Not okay.

Why do I share this? Why even try to give a snapshot of what it’s like on this side of chronic illness? Because Jesus calls us to share, and also to listen and hear. I am not at all the “worst case” of chronic illness that I have ever seen, but I do know how critical and crucial the agencies, departments, centers, etc are above. Do I agree 100% with them? No, but their work IS important and we need it to keep going. What can we do? Well, pray. pray. pray. Be aware of what’s happening. I don’t mean you have to sit down and watch all the hearings. What I mean is get a news app that will give you the facts of the day. Or bookmark the website I will link at the bottom of this post.

It’s not about politics – right now, this is about our future, and most importantly the future of our children! What do we want them to see? Hear? Know? Truth or lies? Fact or false claims? What sounds good or the hard conversations? We get to choose. Choose wisely.

Life Book of the Week: June Almeida, Virus Detective!, by Suzanne Slade

Happy note: DUKE and UNC announced they are planning a stand alone Children’s hospital!!! Just thought I’d share the news 😊