The Host
Mary Agnes Carey
KFF Health News
Mary Agnes Carey is managing editor of KFF Health News. She beforehand served because the director of reports partnerships, overseeing placement of KFF Health News content material in publications nationwide. As a senior correspondent, Mary Agnes coated well being reform and federal well being coverage.
President Donald Trump this week nominated a former deputy surgeon basic who has expressed assist for vaccines to guide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Considered a extra conventional match for the job, Erica Schwartz can be the company’s fourth chief in roughly a yr, ought to she be confirmed by the Senate.
And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on Capitol Hill this week within the first of a number of hearings discussing Trump’s funds request for the division. But the subjects up for dialogue deviated fairly a bit from the topic of federal funding, with lawmakers elevating problems with Medicaid fraud, measles outbreaks, the hepatitis B vaccine, peptides, unaccompanied minors, and far, way more.
This week’s panelists are Mary Agnes Carey of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Health News, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine.
Panelists
Anna Edney
Bloomberg News
Emmarie Huetteman
KFF Health News
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins University and Politico
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Trump on Thursday named 4 officers to the CDC’s management crew. Schwartz, whom he picked as director, is a doctor and Navy officer who served as a deputy surgeon basic throughout Trump’s first time period. She has voiced assist for vaccines and performed a key function within the covid-19 pandemic response.
RFK Jr. testified earlier than three committees of the House of Representatives this week on the president’s funds request for HHS. While the hearings touched on all kinds of subjects, notable moments included a slight softening of Kennedy’s stance on the measles vaccine, together with the acknowledgment that being immunized is safer than having measles — though he additionally stood by the choice to take away the advice for the new child dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
New research on the usage of acetaminophen throughout being pregnant and the consequences of water fluoridation on cognitive perform refute Trump administration claims. And a White House assembly that introduced collectively Trump, Kennedy, and different leaders of the Make America Healthy Again motion aimed to assuage issues amongst supporters — but there’s purpose to consider the overture gained’t fully mend fences between the Trump administration and the MAHA constituency forward of the midterm elections.
Also this week, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews Michelle Canero, an immigration legal professional, about how the Trump administration’s insurance policies have an effect on the medical workforce.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists recommend well being coverage tales they learn (or wrote) this week that they suppose it’s best to learn, too:
Mary Agnes Carey: Politico’s “‘A Crisis in the Making’: Nebraska Races To Impose Work Requirements on Medicaid,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein.
Joanne Kenen: The New York Times’ “He Warned About the Dangers of A.I. If Only His Father Had Listened,” by Teddy Rosenbluth.
Anna Edney: Bloomberg’s “Hormone Drugs Make $6.3 Billion Comeback After FDA Nixes Safety Warnings,” by Anna Edney.
Emmarie Huetteman: KFF Health News’ “Your New Therapist: Chatty, Leaky, and Hardly Human,” by Darius Tahir.
Also talked about on this week’s podcast:
JAMA Pediatrics’ “Acetaminophen Exposure During Pregnancy and the Risk of Autism in Offspring,” by Kira Philipsen Prahm, Pingnan Chen, Line Rode, et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ “Municipal Water Fluoridation, Adolescent IQ, and Cognition Across the Life Course: Evidence From the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study,” by John Robert Warren, Gina Rumore, Kamil Sicinski, and Michal Engelman.
KFF Health News’ “Pennsylvania Town Faces Fallout From Trump’s Environmental Rule Rollback,” by Stephanie Armour and Maia Rosenfeld.
The New York Times’ “In Private Meeting, Trump Soothes Disenchanted MAHA Leaders,” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg.
Wakely Consulting Group’s “Who Paid, and Who Stayed? Early 2026 Enrollment Trends in the Individual Market,” by Michelle Anderson, Chia Yi Chin, and Michael Cohen.
Credits
Taylor Cook
Audio producer
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