Albert Einstein said, “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important affairs.”
I’ve been pondering that concept over the past year and-a-half, as those in our current federal administration who have been entrusted with very important affairs have demonstrated such carelessness with truth, and with human life.
In the year 2000 — as I was beginning school to become a physical therapist — measles was declared “eliminated” in the United States, thanks in large part to safe, effective vaccines. Sadly, from January 2025 through March of this year, the United States has reported more than 3,800 measles cases (93% among unvaccinated or vaccination status unknown patients). Three people have died from this entirely preventable tragedy, including two children.
Measles is one calamity among many wrought by this administration of salesmen, TV personalities and influencers who have waged war against truth and against truth’s best defenders, scientists. The Trump administration has now fired the entire independent board that oversees the National Science Foundation. Parents who have been misled by careless influencers are rejecting vitamin K shots for their newborns — leading to an increase in babies dying from spontaneous bleeding in the brain.
This dishonesty is harming our economy, too. Business leaders who can no longer trust the independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data are reacting cautiously: that loss of certainty caused $20 billion in lost industrial production, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
When I chose to enter the health care field, I was driven by the desire to help people, but also by the joy of becoming part of a field that is led by evidence, and continually seeking truth. There are bad actors in any industry, but as a field, scientists and health care providers have helped to create a civilization where we can live and stay healthy longer than our ancestors could ever have dreamed.
Those of us who value truth, and the tremendous benefits that the pursuit of it has brought to our society, must raise our voices in defense of science. This is one of many reasons I’ve stepped forward to run for state Assembly in District 102. Our policies — economic, social, health care and more — should be led by evidence, not by influencers. State leaders have taken critical steps to protect our communities now, as we continue to push for a return to normalcy and decency at the federal level.
But we can and must do more. The status quo, especially in our health care systems, is not working. While medical treatment guidelines are led by evidence, decisions about whether patients can receive that care are frequently driven by profit motives. If elected, I would co-sponsor the New York Health Act. Similar to Medicare for All, the Health Act would eliminate all for-profit insurance companies and replace them with one insurance agency, operated by New York, with no profit motive.
Every other developed country in the world guarantees its citizens universal health care, and every one of those countries pays significantly less for health care, per capita, than we do in the United States. They also see better health outcomes, as their residents don’t delay or avoid care they can’t afford. Under the New York Health Act, 90% of New Yorkers would pay less for health care than they do now, while every New Yorker would enjoy access to medical, dental, vision, mental health, physical therapy and long-term care — with no co-pays or deductibles. Such a dramatic and needed change would take several years to implement, which is why the legislature should establish a commission to study and begin building the infrastructure necessary to enable this evolution.
There are so many other evidence-based interventions we can take to improve health care for our communities, including expanding school-based health care for all New York kids, mandating safe staffing ratios to protect patients and providers, and enticing providers to work in underserved communities by offering tuition loan forgiveness.
The attacks on science and evidence-based policy coming from the current federal administration are causing tremendous harm. But I am hopeful that we can make it through this dark chapter, and not just repair the old systems but reimagine new ones. We owe it to the next generation to try.