‘A rude awakening’: more doctors running for office in rebuke to Trump’s health policies

Medical professionals are entering the political arena as funding cuts, layoffs and RFK Jr’s vaccine skepticism spur them to action When Abdul El-Sayed walked into Detroit’s health department in 2015, he found about 85 employees crammed into the back of a municipal parking building. The city had recently gone bankrupt and the 185-year-old institution was placed under state emergency management. His job was to rebuild it from practically nothing. Within a year and a half, El-Sayed, who has a medical degree and PhD in public health, said he expanded the department to 220 staff members, opened a new headquarters and launched efforts that still define his reputation: free glasses for low-income schoolchildren; a legal fight that forced an energy company to invest $10m to improve air quality; lead testing in every school, daycare and Head Start facility in the city; and a peer mentor program for newly pregnant moms to address a surge in infant and maternal mortality. “It was a rude awakening,” said El-Sayed, who chose to forgo a medical residency and an assistant professorship in favor of public service. “I went from an ivory tower to the bowels of city government. But it’s