Should you be somewhat comforted by Trump's vague public statements about his plans for public health—the most we really have is a line from his 100-day plan promising a hiring freeze on all federal employees except "the military, public safety, and public health"—please take care to remember the public health legacy of Mike Pence.

A manufactured HIV epidemic due to his Christian opposition to needle exchanges. Attempts to pass a law barring women from seeking abortions for, among other things, reported health defects in the fetsuses. Also, deep cuts to Indiana's now chronically-underfunded public health system.

Per anonymous reports, the Trump Cabinet nominee that Senate Democrats are going to oppose hardest is Tom Price. Remember him? The virulently anti-Obamacare orthopedic surgeon/representative from Georgia who is a member of a fringe medical organization that, among other things, believes doctor participation in Medicare and Medicaid is "evil?" Who has a particular hostility towards evidence-based medicine? That guy?

Following the various dire scenarios presented in this stack to their logical conclusion, one would likely end up somewhere close to the following fictional situation, by NYU bioethicist Art Caplan:

When two young black men were shot outside their home in Oklahoma after a mob confronted local police and national guardsmen Trump issued a statement that ‘these people would either obey lawful orders or they would be jailed’. When the CDC pointed out that sending infected or exposed people to jail would only serve to boost the epidemic he ordered detention-style camps built in every state. Many state authorities simply refused. The media had long ago given up any pretense of public health education in favor of covering the political battle between Trump, recalcitrant governors in many states, his own CDC amidst catcalls from the international community.