Back in 2024 a TikTok asking women if they’d rather run into a bear or a strange man while alone in the woods went viral, mainly because the vast majority of women, based on their experience with men, chose the bear.

I thought about that on Tuesday when I read this:

A new division in the National Institutes of Health and a new task force within the White House will advance the cause of women’s health, an executive order signed by President Trump promises. 

“Beginning today, we will change the reality of women’s health,” first lady Melania Trump said in announcing the initiative Monday. “Our generation will fight to find the cures to ensure a woman can live her life with health and to the fullest.” 

The new NIH division, to be set up within 90 days, is intended to streamline research into understudied diseases in women, advance innovation in diagnostics, and improve treatment, establishing “a new standard for women’s health,” the first lady said. 

Funding for scientific research in general and women’s health in particular have come under fire since Trump returned to the White House. The Department of Health and Human Services will pay for the administrative costs of the task force, Monday’s order said, but details about the new NIH division, which does not replace the current Office of Research on Women’s Health, were not disclosed.

In June, Nicole Kleinstreuer, deputy director for program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives at NIH, predicted a refresh of the NIH-wide strategic plan for women’s health research in the fall. Speaking at a Yale conference, she promised a new effort that “explicitly emphasizes innovative methods and technologies and data science to comprehensively prevent and treat conditions affecting women.” 

OK, so that sounds reasonable.

The new task force, whose first session was set to convene Monday, will be led by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who recently completed a round of breast cancer treatment. Other members include cabinet secretaries such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Pete Hegseth, acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas, and Erica Schwartz, newly confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Let’s unpack this:

First, Suzie Wiles, possibly the most ineffective chief of staff in history. Don’t believe me? She was unable to stop either the Iran war or the hiring of Katie Zarcharia.

Next:  BobbyJr, who is a complete joke on every level:  an anti-vaxxer who bathed in a stream contaminated with fecal matter.  And if that’s not enough, he sexually assaulted women.

Then, Pete Hegseth. Yep the guy credibly accused of sexual assault, whose own mother called him out over his treatment of women, whose ex-sister-in-law provided an affidavit of his abuse of her sister, and who is actively trying to drive women out of the military.

Next up:  Kyle Diamantas, who prostrated himself before anti-abortion extremists to gain their approval for his appointment.

This leaves Erica Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz is the first Black woman to serve as CDC Director and she has an impressive resume. Unfortunately she is obsessed with a conspiracy that says that emergency services are “hiding” abortions. Sigh. This goes back to the ongoing court case over EMTALA.

So nothing concrete is planned and the people in charge of it are anti-women nutjobs. But I guess Melania wanted to sign something on TV, so here we are.

I’ll take the bear.

I’ll leave you with this: