The Host
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly well being coverage information podcast, “What the Health?” A famous skilled on well being coverage points, Julie is the writer of the critically praised reference e-book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third version.
Every week into the reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services introduced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the workers cuts and program cutbacks is beginning to grow to be clear. Among the largest targets for reductions had been the nation’s premier public well being companies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the FDA.
Meanwhile, Kennedy didn’t present up as invited to testify earlier than the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, generally known as HELP, however he did go to households in Texas whose unvaccinated kids died of measles within the present outbreak and known as for an finish to water fluoridation throughout a cease in Utah.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call.
Panelists
Victoria Knight
Axios
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
Sandhya Raman
CQ Roll Call
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Amid a dearth of public details about federal well being cutbacks, HHS workers presently on administrative go away report they got no alternative at hand off their obligations, suggesting necessary work will merely be discontinued. Critical workers members have been lower from the FDA places of work funded by consumer charges, as an illustration — affecting the drugmakers that pay the charges in trade for well timed analysis of their merchandise, in addition to the sufferers hoping for entry to these medicine. Even if the cuts had been reversed, the harm may linger, particularly in areas the place there will likely be gaps in information comparable to illness surveillance.
Meanwhile, the non permanent public communications freeze carried out within the Trump administration’s early days apparently has not ended. State officers, determined for info from federal well being officers about ongoing applications, are receiving no response as they search steerage from places of work during which most or all staffers had been laid off.
President Donald Trump issued an government order this week that instructs federal division heads to summarily repeal any regulation they deem “unlawful.” The order threatens to successfully short-circuit the federal regulatory course of, which entails public notices and alternatives to remark. Businesses depend on that course of to make selections, and Trump’s order may create additional instability for well being care and different industries.
And Kennedy traveled West this week, utilizing his public appearances to name for eradicating fluoride from the water provide and to debate the measles outbreak. He issued his strongest endorsement of the measles vaccine but, however he additionally praised medical doctors who’ve used various and unapproved treatments to deal with measles sufferers. Senators had known as him to testify earlier than Congress this week in regards to the ongoing upheaval at HHS, however the listening to was canceled.
Legislators in a rising variety of states are introducing abortion bans that might punish girls searching for abortions in addition to abortion suppliers, suggesting a protracted sport for abortion opponents that goes properly past overturning a nationwide proper to the process.
Also this week, Rovner interviews Georgetown Law School professor Stephen Vladeck in regards to the limits of presidential energy.
Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists counsel well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they suppose it is best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The New York Times’ “Why the Right Still Embraces Ivermectin,” by Richard Fausset.
Victoria Knight: Wired’s “Dr. Oz Pushed for AI Health Care in First Medicare Agency Town Hall,” by Leah Feiger and Steven Levy.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: The Guardian’s “‘We Are Failing’: Doctors and Students in the US Look to Mexico for Basic Abortion Training,” by Carter Sherman.
Sandhya Raman: CQ Roll Call’s “In Sweden, a Focus on Smokeless Tobacco,” by Sandhya Raman.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
Credits
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Emmarie Huetteman
Editor
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