The dispossessed: a public health response to the rise of the far-right in Europe and North America

2016 was a turbulent year. Few events in our lifetimes alter the world’s political realities. Yet two happened in rapid succession. First, on 24 June 2016, the UK public voted by a narrow margin to exit the EU, which the polls had failed to predict. Then, 8 November 2016, in the USA, democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s seemingly safe lead against republican Donald Trump was found to have been in part an artefact of polling errors as Trump won in an upset. Beyond the obvious need to improve data polling practices, Brexit and Trump’s election pose significant threats to public health in Europe and North America. Some commentators will be quick to ask, ‘is it really that bad?’ Let us turn first to the statements of the president-elect. He has professed ‘climate change is a conspiracy of the Chinese’, and argues to exit the Paris Accord, part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change dealing with greenhouse gases emissions mitigation. He opposes President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which, albeit not without its difficulties, successfully expanded coverage to 20 million Americans.1 He has openly ridiculed people for their disabilities, and made openly misogynistic comments towards women. His early appointments, such as Steve Bannon to chief of staff, who runs an ‘alt-right’ media outlet, Breitbart news. Far from his campaign promise to ‘drain the swamp’ of establishment elites, his transition team now includes the greatest representation of big corporations of any past presidency