According to NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, between 10 and 20 outside groups of researchers will receive grant funding from the agency, as well as access to private medical records from a “broad range” of people. Meanwhile, research into cancer, HIV, diabetes, infertility, maternal mortality, abortion access, and more, as well as family planning and programs to prevent intimate partner violence and the spread of viral diseases, are all being arbitrarily gutted. Bhattacharya said the NIH was also looking at the potential to get more access to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The study also wants to look at data from smartwatches, claims from private insurers, medication records from pharmacy chains, and records from patients treated by the Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service.
All of this, to state the obvious, is glaringly and alarmingly reminiscent of Nazi Germany’s notorious registry of people with disabilities who were deemed “unworthy of life.” Those policies were the culmination of years of rising ableism amid the height of the eugenics movement, which, similar to Kennedy, aimed to wipe out and “prevent” the birth of “unfit” populations, targeting people by race, class, and physical and mental health conditions.
Currently thrilled that I decided to never pursue a formal diagnosis. (I opted to not to due to expense and knowing that it could be used against me in legal battles and would make it harder to leave the country if it came to it.)
