We also look at a buried provision in a new ACA rule that would let health insurance companies loan money to patients who can’t afford their own deductibles WITH interest. Do we really need a loan shark in our insurance plans?

Plus: RFK Jr.’s latest controversy: his promotion of unproven, unapproved stem cell treatments for autistic children costing up to $20,000 per session. Plus, a look at Kennedy’s “Take Back Your Health” tour and whether his visits to Republican toss-up districts constitute quiet campaign stops. And how much longer should we expect to see him leading HHS?

And welcome Dr Craig Spencer, an emergency physician who contracted Ebola in the 2014 outbreak. He discusses the current global outbreak and the implications of recent U.S. funding cuts to healthcare surveillance and response programs like USAID.

Plus! We are joined by friend of the show Dr. Kristin Lyerly, who has a BIG announcement!

LINKS:

• Virginia Public Media (VPM): Roughly 1 in 5 rural Virginia hospitals at risk of closure

• Becker’s Hospital Review: 720 hospitals at risk of closure, by state

• STAT: HSA companies struck it big in Trump’s tax bill. They’re lobbying for more

• The Great American Health Alliance ad: Reconciliation 3.0: Health Care Cannot Wait

• The New York Times: Can’t Pay Medical Bills? Trump Officials Suggest Getting a Loan.

• The Guardian: Autistic children being injected with unapproved stem cell treatments supported by RFK Jr

• POLITICO: Milk’s the drink of choice at RFK Jr.’s event with swing-district Republican

• MLive: ‘Destroying our country’: RFK Jr. urges healthy eating during Michigan visit

• POLITICO: RFK Jr.’s movement was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities. It’s not even in the game.

• Puck News: MAHA Faces the R.F.K. Rumor Mill

• KFF Health News: Trump Bought Tobacco Stocks and Raked In Industry Donations as FDA Eased Standards

• The Washington Post: Trump sees 22 medical specialists, appearing to set new bar for presidents

• POLITICO: America’s doctors just voted for war with RFK Jr.

• CraigASpencer.com

• Craig Spencer’s Brown University bio is HERE

• Craig Spencer on LinkedIn

• Craig Spencer on X

• Craig Spencer on Instagram

• AXIOS: Trump admin pre-blames Europe for any World Cup Ebola

Join the fight at committeetoprotect.org.

Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help more people find Paging America.

Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• In Michigan, the Alliance Defending Freedom wants to overturn a law that protects abortion patients from employment discrimination and allow companies to refuse to hire them.

• A new study shows that abortion bans may be reducing the number of women applying for medical school and “restrictive reproductive policies may be subtly reshaping women’s professional pathways even at the earliest stages of the physician workforce pipeline.”

• The Hill reports that a provision in Trump’s big billionaire tax giveaway law that stripped $700,000 in funding for Planned Parenthood is due to expire next month and the fight is on over whether or not it gets extended.

• Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Judge Strikes Down Three Abortion Restrictions As Unconstitutional

Health Care Affordability

• The Hill: States starting to see major ObamaCare coverage losses

• The New York Times: Can’t Pay Medical Bills? Trump Officials Suggest Getting a Loan [from your insurance company!]

• Fierce Healthcare reports that a key legislative panel voted Tuesday to bar CMS from spending funds to pilot a controversial plan to add prior authorization to traditional Medicare.

• In related news, NBC News reports that “patients enrolled in some of the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage plans were denied requests for rehabilitation and other critical services at unusually high rates, according to a report released by HHS.

• The American Medical Association (AMA) strengthened its opposition to corporate practice of medicine by passing a policy that takes a stronger stance against physician practices being anything other than owned and governed by licensed physicians.

• Modern Healthcare: Judge strikes shortened ACA enrollment, stricter eligibility checks

Trump Administration News

• POLITICO reports that, despite its promise to rescue the midterms for the GOP, the MAHA movement isn’t even in the game and that they “have largely stayed out of the races that will determine the makeup of Congress.”

• According to reporting by CNN, RFK Jr. is seeking access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism.

• The Trump administration began suspending about 800 hospices in the Los Angeles area suspected of fraud this spring. Legit caregivers are becoming collateral damage, The Washington Post reports.

• The AMA is done with RFK Jr. They just elected an anti-Kennedy president who is ready to go on the attack. Via a POLITICO article titled, “America’s doctors just voted for war with RFK Jr.”

• STAT: RFK Jr. claims his calendar is publicly available. We’ve been trying to get it for a year

• Kennedy claims his trip to MAHA PAC-endorsed Tom Barrett’s Congressional district (MI-07) isn’t a campaign stop.

• Mother Jones: RFK’s Answer to the Maternal Health Crisis: Hide the Data

  The Guardian has a shocking story about desperate parents of children with autism paying up to $20,000 for injections of stem cells from human umbilical cords, an unproven, unapproved, and possibly bogus treatment championed by RFK Jr.

• Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that a federal judge has ruled to keep the state hospital records of transgender minors away from the Trump administration.

• CIDRAP: Poll reveals plunging trust in CDC guidance but broad backing for childhood vaccines

• The New York Times: How an Addictive Gas Station Drug Found Allies in Trump’s Cabinet – With support from Markwayne Mullin and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the kratom industry is pursuing a potentially lucrative policy. Mr. Mullin owns equity in a company that could benefit.

• Via STAT, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has released a recommended vaccine schedule for pregnant people, one that diverges from the advice currently offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• In 2019, Trump pledged to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. POLITICO reports he has abandoned the effort.

• Trump continues to prove he’s the most pro-nicotine president in memory. In addition to approving fruit-flavored vapes (and accepting campaign donations from the companies that make them), he bought stock in multiple tobacco companies this year.

Other Health Care News

• Last March, STAT reported on the formation of the Great American Health Alliance which is trying to further cash in after reaping a windfall with Trump’s big billionaire tax giveaway law. The nonprofit’s membership includes “HealthEquity, one of the largest administrators of HSAs [Health Savings Accounts], and the American Bankers Association, which represents institutions holding about 90% of HSAs.” The group is aggressively promoting including HSAs in the so-called Reconciliation 3.0 (filibuster-proof) legislation Congress may be taking up and, this week, they released a splashy 30-second ad directed at lawmakers. HSAs mainly benefit people with high incomes and are used essentially as tax shelters.

• VPM: Roughly 1 in 5 rural Virginia hospitals at risk of closure

• About a dozen doctors and scientists were escorted out of the American Diabetes Association’s annual conference by police on June 5 after they handed out copies of an editorial critical of the Trump administration’s changes to U.S. biomedical research. The ADA is facing withering condemnation for calling the police and they have issued an apology. Some leaders have resigned.

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Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker addresses attendees at the Committee’s first Organizing Summit

››› RFK Jr. is “checked out” at HHS

The New York Times has an exclusive report out this week suggesting that RFK Jr. is so fixated on his pet projects that he’s largely absent from running the sprawling network of public health agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services:

Mr. Kennedy has shown little interest in managing the details of work in his department, according to multiple colleagues. Instead, they say, he is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations and pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his long-held beliefs that vaccines are harmful. [...]

When he is in town, he exercises at his gym before work, then usually arrives at about 10 a.m. and leaves by 4 p.m., his colleagues say. He spends much of his day in closed-door meetings, according to those who work with him, and has little direct engagement with his staff.

Every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., the chiefs of the department’s 13 operating divisions gather in the secretary’s suite to update leadership on their activities. At the outset of his tenure, Mr. Kennedy was rarely there, either virtually or in person, according to three people familiar with his schedule…[H]e now shows up once a month [and] when he does attend, he often appears disengaged and spends the time scrolling on his phone, according to people in attendance. Several described him as “checked out.”

This may explain the administration’s tepid response to the ongoing measles, hantavirus, and Ebola outbreaks as well as the mass vacancies throughout HHS.

››› Speaking of RFK Jr.’s fixation on the dangers of vaccines…

CNN reports that Kennedy is seeking access to most Americans’ medical records, in a quest to research a link between vaccines and autism:

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking data from little-known state systems that allow hospitals and clinics to exchange detailed, identifiable patient information, KFF Health News has learned.

In private meetings, some public health leaders have objected to giving Kennedy’s team access to such data, raising doubts that it’s legal or that the information would even be useful.

They have also expressed concerns about allowing the federal government to peer into the minutiae of Americans’ medical records, which could mean viewing anything from doctors’ notes to prescription history. HHS has offered no insight into how it will protect or handle the personal health information it obtains. [...]

He and his advisers have been frustrated that federal access to Americans’ medical records has been limited.

››› Kennedy’s promotion of raw milk is having the predictable result

Officials in Idaho are investigating how nearly 60 people got sick after drinking raw milk in the past two weeks. Via reporting from the Idaho Capital Sun:

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced in a news release on Wednesday that most of the people reported being sick after drinking raw milk from two different milking operations in North Idaho and southern Idaho. The infections were reported starting May 19.

The state health agency didn’t disclose the names of the dairies, but said they are collaborating with health officials “to identify and fix any potential sources of contamination.”

In a statement, Department of Health and Welfare spokesperson AJ McWhorter said the agency didn’t name the milking operations “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.” [...]

Raw milk isn’t pasteurized, a process that involves heating the milk to kill bacteria — like Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella — that can be present in raw milk.

So far, 45 of the people who got sick tested positive for campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection. But officials say not everyone who got sick has been tested, and that more illnesses could be found.

In related news, ProPublica pulled back the curtain on one raw milk zealot who is profiting from Kennedy’s promotion of raw milk. The piece, titled “The Milkman”, spotlights Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee:

I had spent the past couple of weeks corresponding with Raw Farm founder Mark McAfee, who’d filled my inbox with messages and PowerPoints extolling the virtues of his most important, and controversial, product:

It is delicious.

It makes you feel good (the gut-brain serotonin and dopamine cycle).

It’s great for asthma and literally saves lives.

He was talking about raw milk, which, if you trust 150 years of bedrock science, offers little reason to consume…Today, most scientists and health experts agree that raw milk has no significant, proven nutritional benefits over its sanitized counterpart, cannot treat or cure disease and subjects its consumers to over 100 times the risk of foodborne illness, which can be especially dangerous for young children.

And yet, McAfee’s farm, the largest raw-milk dairy in the country, is pulling in about $30 million a year…More than 10 million Americans now drink it; national weekly sales rose by 65% from 2023 to 2024 alone.

In the article, McAfee concedes he “put a couple kids in the hospital” with his milk. In fact, one of them suffered permanent kidney damage. Regulators have traced 233 outbreak cases to his farm.

The Biden administration was on the verge of cracking down on him but the Trump administration put an end to that.

If he finds contamination in his milk, McAfee doesn’t dump it. Instead, he uses it to make cheese because, he says, “cheese is resistant to pathogens.” Research has, of course, proven this to be untrue and, on March 15, federal regulators linked Raw Farm cheese to yet another E. coli outbreak.

››› For all its bluster, the MAHA movement is largely politically irrelevant

POLITICO reports that the movement started by RFK Jr. that was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities is not even in the game:

MAHA Action and MAHA Institute, the movement’s political organizations spreading Kennedy’s message on healthy food and vaccine safety, have largely stayed out of the races that will determine the makeup of Congress. Tony Lyons, the publisher of Kennedy’s books who’s taken a lead role in running the groups, has struggled to turn Kennedy’s appeal into the juggernaut Republicans had hoped would enable them to hold onto their House and Senate majorities. [...]

MAHA groups have endorsed just one Republican, freshman Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, in a battleground House district so far, ignoring the rest of the competitive races that will determine control of the chamber.

In the Senate, where Republicans need to defend seats in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, MAHA hasn’t backed anyone, much less provided money or grassroots support.

››› Republicans have a secret plan to save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security

That’s right, Republicans have a plan to save the so-called entitlements but they aren’t going to tell us what that plan is until next year so we’ll just have to wait. Via The Washington Post:

Social Security’s trust fund is now due to run low on money beginning in 2032. And in announcing that new date Tuesday, the government acknowledged that the Trump administration’s immigration policies and tax cuts are expected to contribute to the insolvency. [...]

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) suggested Monday that he would release a plan next year to address ballooning entitlement spending, leading to Democratic attacks.

You can listen to House Speaker Mike Johnson talk about his secret plan to slash entitlements that he won’t reveal until after the midterms HERE.

One Republican was asked about the Republicans’ secret plans and the result was hilarious as he very obviously faked a phone call to avoid talking to a journalist asking him about it. Posting the video, Meidas Touch said, “Rep. Rob Wittman faked a phone call for roughly 90 seconds after being asked about Speaker Mike Johnson’s comments regarding potential Social Security cuts. The phone's screen remained visible, with his cheek inadvertently tapping different parts of the display.”

››› CMS releases the interim final rule to states on implementing Medicaid work requirements

Implementing this part of the Trump tax bill will throw upwards of 5 million people off their health care coverage. Via NBC News:

Pregnant women, parents of young children, veterans with disabilities and several other groups will be exempt from Medicaid’s new work requirements, the Trump administration said Monday.

The guidance was released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, meeting a June 1 deadline under President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to explain how states should carry out the work rules.

Beginning Jan. 1, many adults on Medicaid will need to work, attend school or volunteer for at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage.

The guidance also allows exemptions for people who are “medically frail” or have conditions that significantly limit their ability to work, such as cancer or substance use disorder. The guidance doesn’t include an exemption for people who are homeless. [...]

The work requirements are expected to cause about 5 million people to lose their health coverage by 2034, largely because of paperwork and administrative hurdles, as opposed to because of their job status, according to a KFF report.

A recent survey showed that over half of Medicaid recipients don’t even realize what’s about to hit them.

Dr. Oz was openly callous about many of those recipients, essentially calling them freeloading fraudsters who watch over six hours of television a day. Watch that HERE.

IMPORTANT! You can submit public comments on the interim final rule (Medicaid Program; Community Engagement Requirement for Certain Individuals) HERE.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #59

• The New York Times: Kennedy Shows Minimal Engagement With Vast Health Portfolio

• CNN: RFK Jr. seeks to peek at Americans’ medical records for clues on autism and vaccines

• Idaho Capital Sun: Nearly 60 Idahoans sick after drinking raw milk in past two weeks, officials say

• ProPublica: The Milkman

• POLITICO: RFK Jr.’s movement was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities. It’s not even in the game.

• The Washington Post: Social Security shortfall expected to accelerate, with funds at critical low in 2032

• MSNOW: Speaker Johnson eyes a new ‘plan’ for Social Security and Medicare to be shared in 2027

• NBC News: Trump admin outlines who would be exempt from Medicaid work requirements

• Healthcare Dive: Over half of Medicaid enrollees say they’re unaware of upcoming work requirements

• POLITICO: How sick is sick enough? New Medicaid work rule worries patient advocates, states.

• Alice Miranda Ollstein at POLITICO

• Alice Miranda Ollstein on Bluesky

• Alice Miranda Ollstein on Instagram

• Anusha Thotakura at Citizen Action - Illinois

• Citizen Action - Illinois on X

• You can submit public comments on the interim final rule (Medicaid Program; Community Engagement Requirement for Certain Individuals) HERE

WATCH EPISODE 59 HERE

First, the hosts dive into explosive reporting exposing an absentee RFK Jr. at HHS, whose single-minded fixation on conspiracy theories has left critical public health infrastructure unattended during active global outbreaks. While he might be checked out of day-to-day management, his team is actively hunting for access to Americans’ private medical records, raising massive HIPAA, privacy, and political weaponization alarms.

Plus, a look at the very real, very dangerous consequences of the anti-pasteurization movement as Idaho tackles a massive raw milk bacterial outbreak.

And we dissect Speaker Mike Johnson’s “secret plan” to alter entitlement programs post-election and look at the fracturing political momentum of the MAHA movement in key midterm battlegrounds.

In the second half of the show, Miles and Dr. Rob discuss the newly released interim final rule on Medicaid work requirements, a policy shift projected to strip health insurance from upward of 5 million Americans by 2034. They are joined by two expert guests to cut through the disinformation and lay out the ground reality:

• Alice Miranda Ollstein (Senior Health Care Reporter, Politico) breaks down the national policy landscape, the administrative hurdles designed to trigger coverage losses, and the unexpected political fallout.

• Anusha Thadakura (Health Care Advocate, Illinois) zooms in on the state level to share what these sweeping changes actually mean for working-class families on the ground.

Take Action: The “interim final rule” on Medicaid work requirements is open for public feedback. Submit a public comment and ensure your voice is part of the legal and public record before the January 1 deadline HERE

LINKS

• The New York Times: Kennedy Shows Minimal Engagement With Vast Health Portfolio

• CNN: RFK Jr. seeks to peek at Americans’ medical records for clues on autism and vaccines

• Idaho Capital Sun: Nearly 60 Idahoans sick after drinking raw milk in past two weeks, officials say

• ProPublica: The Milkman

• POLITICO: RFK Jr.’s movement was supposed to save the GOP’s majorities. It’s not even in the game.

• The Washington Post: Social Security shortfall expected to accelerate, with funds at critical low in 2032

• MSNOW: Speaker Johnson eyes a new ‘plan’ for Social Security and Medicare to be shared in 2027

• NBC News: Trump admin outlines who would be exempt from Medicaid work requirements

• Healthcare Dive: Over half of Medicaid enrollees say they’re unaware of upcoming work requirements

• POLITICO: How sick is sick enough? New Medicaid work rule worries patient advocates, states.

• Alice Miranda Ollstein at POLITICO

• Alice Miranda Ollstein on Bluesky

• Alice Miranda Ollstein on Instagram

• Anusha Thotakura at Citizen Action - Illinois

• Citizen Action - Illinois on X

Join the fight at committeetoprotect.org.

Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help more people find Paging America.

Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• At long last, the FDA has begun its promised investigation into the safety of the abortion medication mifepristone which has been approved and used for decades and is used in 65% of abortions. The timing suggests the Trump administration wanted to avoid releasing the results prior to the midterm elections in November though they claim the delay was because they “needed new data systems for the effort.” More from the Wall Street Journal:

Some of the administration officials said the agency had been making preparations by acquiring data and examining whether a study was feasible. They said the administration had kicked the study into high gear because of conversations with antiabortion groups and a coming October deadline, set by a Louisiana judge this spring as part of ongoing litigation over the abortion pill. The administration is aiming for a robust study that will withstand legal criticism, the administration officials said. [...]

In addition to the FDA study using the agency’s own drug safety systems, the agency is also considering hiring a contractor to acquire and analyze data on mifepristone use, the administration officials said.

• Ohio Republicans are continuing their efforts to overrule the will of the voters:

Ohio conservatives are back at it—this time with a ballot measure to repeal the abortion protections voters overwhelmingly passed in 2023. [...]

Their latest attempt is a proposed amendment with a deceptively benign name—“Reproductive Healthcare and Legislative Authority Over Abortion”—that would strip abortion out of the constitution entirely. In its place, voters would get protections for “contraception, miscarriage treatment, and fertility care”—while the regulation of abortion would become “the exclusive authority of the Ohio General Assembly.”

In other words: hand abortion back to the same Republican legislators voters just overruled.

Health Care Affordability

• The Trump administration has released its guidance to states for implementing the Medicaid work requirements put in place by last summer’s big billionaire tax giveaway. Experts estimate that as many as 5 million people will lose coverage by 2034, largely because of administrative hurdles, without a meaningful increase in the number of people employed. Pregnant women, parents of young children, veterans with disabilities, and “medically frail” people are among the groups that are exempted. POLITICO has more on that HERE. One survey found out that most Medicaid enrollees don’t even know what’s about to hit them.

Trump Administration News

• RFK Jr.’s war on vaccines is starting to manifest in a very predictable way: an increase in preventable diseases. The New York Times reports that “doctors around the country say they are seeing more cases of serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long kept at bay, including whooping cough and bacterial infections that can cause pneumonia or meningitis.”

• The New York Times has also discovered that RFK Jr. has demonstrated little interest in managing the sprawling HHS he is responsible for as he focuses on his pet interests. “[H]e is single-mindedly focused on his top priorities, including food recommendations and pesticide exposures, and hunting for evidence to support his long-held beliefs that vaccines are harmful,” they write.

• Dr. Oz took his turn at the White House Press Room podium last week and made a couple of wild statements about health care. First, he claimed that 35% of the people on the ACA rolls may be there fraudulently. He also said that Trump’s big billionaire tax giveaway, which also has the Orwellian name “the Working Families Tax Cut Act”, saved Medicaid.

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RFK Jr.’s war on vaccines is starting to manifest in a very predictable way: an increase in preventable diseases. This is from reporting by The New York Times:

Doctors around the country say they are seeing more cases of serious, sometimes life-threatening illnesses that vaccines have long kept at bay, including whooping cough and bacterial infections that can cause pneumonia or meningitis. [...]

For some of these diseases, national data show clear and substantial increases in recent years; for others, the increases are small, or there are anecdotal indications from doctors on the ground of increases that public statistics don’t currently confirm.

While most children recover, these diseases aren’t benign. Many children endure extended hospitalizations. Some infections can be fatal.

[One physician reported that she and her colleagues are treating] more children than usual with persistent diarrhea. A child with a run-of-the-mill stomach virus might need a day or so of IV fluids, but these patients were being hospitalized for three or four days.

The culprit: Rotavirus, which once caused tens of thousands of hospitalizations a year in the United States but was largely swept away by vaccines introduced 20 years ago.

››› Trump released the results of his physical and it raises more questions than it answers

On Friday, we got a look at the results of Trump’s recent “six month physical” and physicians are raising legitimate questions about just how unhealthy our president is. This is from reporting by The Hill:

“When a President’s physicians start citing ‘AI cardiac age’ metrics and explaining bilateral bruising from ‘frequent handshaking,’ the line between medical documentation and political messaging disappears,” Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and public health expert, wrote on the social platform X. [...]

Clinicians also questioned why [Trump’s doctor] and the White House were citing an “AI-enhanced” electrocardiogram, which estimated his cardiac age “to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.” This is not a clinically utilized tool and describing a patient being younger in cardiac age isn’t a proper diagnostic finding, they said.

Jonathan Reiner, former Vice President Cheney’s heart doctor, questioned why Trump has needed multiple CT scans of his coronary arteries.

“We don’t typically scan patients 6 months later unless we are concerned about a finding on the initial scan. What prompted the repeat CT?” Reiner wrote on X.

Reiner also noted the three-page report mentioned that the president’s ankle edema is improved compared with last year, but last year’s exam made no mention of such a condition.

››› Americans with Ebola are not welcome home

Last week, Rob and Dr. Ford discussed how, rather than dealing with Americans infected with Ebola in our own country, the Trump administration is preventing them from coming here. At a recent cabinet meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went so far as to say, “The number one priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola into the United States.”

Initially Americans with Ebola were going to be sent to Kenya for treatment. However, a judge in Kenya, which so far has had no Ebola cases, quickly put an end to that plan, at least for now. Via The Washington Post:

Kenya’s High Court on Tuesday extended its order to halt a Trump administration plan to establish a field hospital for Americans exposed to or infected with Ebola.

The facility, which was constructed by the U.S. military — with Kenyan government approval — on an air base on the outskirts of Nanyuki, a town in central Kenya, had been set to open on Friday but was blocked by an initial court decision.

The makeshift hospital is intended to isolate Americans exposed to Ebola, a viral hemorrhagic fever following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The court on Tuesday issued new orders extending its previous restrictions for seven days and directing the Kenyan government to disclose details about its negotiations and agreements with the United States, including hazard assessments related to the facility.

Instead, government officials say they’ll be sent to as-yet unidentified countries in Europe.

The decision to refuse patients entry into their own country for treatment is drawing harsh criticism, Reuters reports:

Healthcare officials in the U.S., including former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, on Monday warned Congress against adopting ​a proposed policy to treat Americans exposed to Ebola in ‌Kenya or countries in the European Union.

The officials, including infectious disease physician Krutika Kuppalli, emergency physicians Debra Houry and Craig Spencer, and epidemiologist Anne ​Schuchat, argued in an open letter the policy would be ​a departure from the longstanding practice of medical repatriation ⁠and raise serious clinical risks.

“This policy raises profound clinical, ethical, operational, ​and legal concerns,” the letter said, adding that such measures could discourage ​frontline responders from deploying to regions affected by outbreaks and undermine global response efforts.

“At a time when outbreak response efforts are already strained, this is a ​dangerous precedent. We are equally concerned about the diversion of ​resources toward establishing ad hoc quarantine, isolation and treatment infrastructure overseas rather than ‌directing ⁠urgently needed resources toward controlling the outbreak at its source.”

››› Dr. Oz led a White House press briefing and, hoo boy…

Dr. Oz took his turn at the White House Press Room podium this week and made a couple of wild statements about health care. First, he claimed that 35% of the people on the ACA rolls may be there fraudulently. You can watch it HERE.

TRANSCRIPT:

We believe that 35%, roughly, of the people that are using the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare exchanges, because they’ve never used the program once, never filed a claim, may not be legit. And that actual number may translate to 5-6 million people we could be paying premiums for because they don’t have to contribute anything. They don’t even know they’re getting it. These are people who have Medicaid and someone, often a broker, dishonestly enrolling them in the Affordable Care Act. They’re in two states at once getting full insurance paid for by us, in multiple states at once.

Then, he said that Trump’s Big Beautiful Billionaire Tax Giveaway, also called the Working Families Tax Cut Act, saved Medicaid. You can watch that HERE.

TRANSCRIPT:

Dan Brillman and Caprice Knapp, did a fantastic job writing this with a lot of states. But as you know, in the Working Families Tax Cut Legislation, which I believe saved Medicaid.

››› Now it’s time for the weekly “RFK Jr. does weird stuff” segment

This week, in an apparent effort to shore up support from rural farmers (who are very unhappy with Trump at the moment), RFK Jr. made a bizarre statement about an Obama-era policy limiting whole milk in schools:

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed his love for milk again Monday. This time it was in the district of embattled GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose western Wisconsin seat in America’s Dairyland is one Republicans really want to hold this November.

The visit, just the latest in a string of them from Cabinet secretaries to Van Orden’s district, comes as Republicans seek to shore up incumbents in toss-up races who must win this November if the GOP is to keep its House majority. […]

Van Orden cosponsored a bill President Donald Trump signed in January to lift Obama-era restrictions on whole milk in schools. That aligns with Kennedy’s goals. The health secretary has repeatedly encouraged people to drink more milk, including in a viral video in which he and the rock star Kid Rock sipped the beverage in a hot tub.

During the visit, Kennedy said this:

We deprived two generations of children of whole milk, which is, which has all the micronutrients that they need for brain growth, for physical development, for bone development. And it really was a almost a form of child abuse to do that. Yeah. And we’re bringing that, President Trump because of his leadership, is bringing whole milk back to American schools. But also just good food, REAL food, food that comes from farms, not from chemical plants.

You can watch that HERE.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #58

• The New York Times: Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline

• MedPage Today: Read the Results of Trump’s 2026 Physical Exam

• The Hill: Trump’s checkup leaves unanswered questions

• The Hill: Key takeaways from Trump’s Cabinet meeting: Iran, Ebola, midterms

• The Washington Post: Kenyan court extends order blocking U.S. hospital for American Ebola patients

• NBC News: Americans who get Ebola will go to Europe for treatment, not U.S., officials say

• Reuters: Health officials oppose US plan to treat Ebola-exposed Americans overseas

• The White House: CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz Briefs Members of the Media, Jun. 2, 2026

• The Washington Post: Trump betrayed farmers. Now real signs of anger show.

WATCH EPISODE 58 HERE

Preventable diseases are making a comeback as vaccine rates fall, with Rob reporting firsthand sightings of chickenpox and whooping cough in the ER for the first time in years. Then, Trump’s latest physical raises more questions than it answers.

Why has Trump taken the Montreal Cognitive Assessment multiple times when it’s not a routine screening test? Why is he on two cholesterol medications and repeat coronary CT scans? Why does his physical mention improved ankle swelling that was never mentioned in last year’s report? The guys aren’t buying the spin, and they’re not alone: cardiologists and pulmonologists are publicly raising the same red flags. Miles sums it up bluntly: this is starting to feel less like political theater and more like an administration simply running out of convincing lies.

Also on the docket: Americans infected with Ebola are being turned away from their own country, with the administration’s Plan A (send them to Kenya) blocked by a Kenyan court. Dr. Oz takes the White House podium to claim 35% of ACA enrollees may be committing fraud and that the biggest Medicaid cuts in history somehow saved Medicaid. And RFK Jr. hits the campaign trail in Wisconsin dairy country, making the case that whole milk is coming back to school cafeterias — and apparently that’s the hill this administration is choosing to die on.

• The New York Times: Hospitals See Diseases Resurge as Vaccinations Decline

• MedPage Today: Read the Results of Trump’s 2026 Physical Exam

• The Hill: Trump’s checkup leaves unanswered questions

• The Hill: Key takeaways from Trump’s Cabinet meeting: Iran, Ebola, midterms

• The Washington Post: Kenyan court extends order blocking U.S. hospital for American Ebola patients

• NBC News: Americans who get Ebola will go to Europe for treatment, not U.S., officials say

• Reuters: Health officials oppose US plan to treat Ebola-exposed Americans overseas

• The White House: CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz Briefs Members of the Media, Jun. 2, 2026

• The Washington Post: Trump betrayed farmers. Now real signs of anger show.

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ICYMI! Be sure to watch Committee Executive Director Dr. Rob Davidson administer the cognitive test Trump brags he “aced” to journalist Jim Acosta HERE!

Money Out of Politics

• Last week, the ballot proposal group Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) turned in over 562,000 signatures. They will need 356,958 valid signatures in order to put the measure on the November ballot. If voters approve it, it will prohibit public utilities and large state government contractors from donating to political causes. The Committee to Protect Health Care has been working to help secure enough valid signatures and was on hand for their delivery in Lansing. Committee Member Dr. Aisha Harris spoke at the event. From reporting by Michigan Public:

Dr. Aisha Harris is with one of the coalition groups behind the measure. She said she has seen the influence-peddling system take a real-life toll.

“When insurance companies and corporate interests can spend enormous amounts of money influencing the political system, what is best for the patients is too often pushed to the sidelines. That creates a system where lawmakers hear more from lobbyists and donors than from physicians, nurses, and people struggling to afford care,” Harris said during a press conference Wednesday.

Aside from limiting political giving, the ballot initiative would also expand policies that require outside groups spending money on Michigan campaigns to reveal their donors.

• Dr. Harris was joined by Committee Advocates Dr. BreeOna Namukowa and Dr. Judi Suess.

• You can watch a video from the signature turn-in event featuring Dr. Harris HERE.

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• Michigan Advance: Federal appeals court affirms dismissal of Right to Life challenge to Michigan abortion protections:

A panel of judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the federal district court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan challenging the state’s constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights, agreeing with the initial dismissal that the plaintiffs lack standing in their suit. [...]

“From the start, this lawsuit was a procedurally flawed, meritless, and politically motivated attack on reproductive rights that Michigan voters overwhelmingly supported,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement.

• In an op-ed in The Hill, professors Sonia Suter and Naomi Cahn point out the hypocrisy of the Moms.gov website, calling it a “shiny new…website [that] hides a tarnished record that actually harms women and children.”

Health Care Affordability

• Dr. Mitchell B. Hollander makes the case for site-neutral payment policies for lowering the cost of health care in an op-ed in The Detroit News titled, “Michigan’s health care pricing system needs reform”:

Policymakers should focus on site-of-care optimization ― that is, ensuring that patients receive care in the most appropriate, cost-effective setting.

In practical terms, that means paying the same amount for the same service, regardless of where it is performed. Physicians should decide on where to deliver care based on what’s best for their patients, not on which setting commands the highest reimbursement.

The potential savings are substantial. In my specialty, urology, Medicare’s total reimbursement for a cystourethroscopy ― a common, often outpatient, procedure a physician uses to examine the urethra and bladder ― is three times higher in the hospital outpatient department than in the medical office.

• Fierce Healthcare: GoodRx launches subscription program for low-cost generic medications, telehealth services:

GoodRx announced Wednesday the launch of GoodRx Companion, a subscription program that offers access to virtual healthcare services and prescription medications at discounted prices.

Through the $14.99 monthly GoodRx Companion subscription, users can access free and low-cost generic medications, online care visits and additional healthcare services. The company says the new subscription advances its strategy by adding broader offerings alongside its weight loss, erectile dysfunction and hair loss programs. [...]

Members are also eligible to save on dental care, vision care and common lab and imaging services.

Trump Administration News

• NBC News: Americans who get Ebola will go to Europe for treatment, not U.S., officials say. Prior to this decision, they were going to send them to Kenya which has had no cases, so far. The Kenyan government quickly put an end to that plan, at least for now.

• Trump finally released the results of his recent visit to the doctor for a “six month checkup” last Friday. AXIOS reports that key items were left out of it, like why he’s getting physicals so frequently. Trump bragged once again that he crushed a cognitive test, his fourth, saying it shows “extreme intelligence.” As Dr. Rob Davidson pointed out after administering the same test to journalist Jim Acosta, this is a test designed to monitor cognitive decline and is not an IQ test. It is typically only administered when mental decline is a concern.

• The Hill has more:

Clinicians also questioned why [Trump’s doctor] and the White House were citing an “AI-enhanced” electrocardiogram, which estimated his cardiac age “to be approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age.” This is not a clinically utilized tool and describing a patient being younger in cardiac age isn’t a proper diagnostic finding, they said.

Jonathan Reiner, former Vice President Cheney’s heart doctor, questioned why Trump has needed multiple CT scans of his coronary arteries.

“We don’t typically scan patients 6 months later unless we are concerned about a finding on the initial scan. What prompted the repeat CT?” Reiner wrote on X.

Reiner also noted the three-page report mentioned that the president’s ankle edema is improved compared with last year, but last year’s exam made no mention of such a condition.

• You can read the full results of his exam HERE.

• Trying to shore up support from rural farmers, RFK Jr. compared an Obama-era policy limiting whole milk in schools to child abuse. “We deprived two generations of children of whole milk,” he said. “It really was almost a form of child abuse.”

• Trump doubled down on his support of RFK Jr. changing the childhood vaccine schedule with an Executive Order this week. Via CNN:

Trump’s order adds weight behind the study at a time when the administration had appeared to be trying to shift focus away from Kennedy’s more contentious vaccine policies and toward more mainstream topics like healthy eating.

The order directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review the study and “take any appropriate steps” to update its vaccine recommendations. It says the CDC should “provide maximum flexibility to parents and doctors” and directs agencies to make sure all actions, regulations and funding are aligned with the study. [...]

The order adds that any changes should ensure that Americans retain their current access to vaccines.

Other Health Care News

• Nearly 250 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo have died during the current Ebola outbreak that has sickened over 1,000 people.

• Despite what RFK Jr. says, a new study reveals that, while parental depression is strongly linked to child neurodevelopmental disorders like autism, taking anti-depressant medications does not.

• The percentage of uninsured Americans held steady last year, as it had for several years prior. Next year, following the decimation of the Affordable Care Act by Trump and Congressional Republicans, that fact will likely seem like a quaint bit of news.

• Following the passage of Trump’s big, beautiful millionaire tax giveaway, hospital closures seemed inevitable. Turns out they were. FORBES has a list of 446 hospitals that are currently at risk of closing.

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››› Michigan ballot proposal to get corporate money out of politics submits signatures

Yesterday, the group “Michiganders for Money Out of Politics” or MMOP turned in over 562,000 signatures. They will need 356,958 valid signatures in order to put the measure on the November ballot. If voters approve it, it will prohibit public utilities and large state government contractors from donating to political causes. The Committee to Protect Health Care has been working to help secure enough valid signatures and was on hand for their delivery in Lansing. Committee Member Dr. Aisha Harris spoke at the event. From reporting by Michigan Public:

Dr. Aisha Harris is with one of the coalition groups behind the measure. She said she has seen the influence-peddling system take a real-life toll.

“When insurance companies and corporate interests can spend enormous amounts of money influencing the political system, what is best for the patients is too often pushed to the sidelines. That creates a system where lawmakers hear more from lobbyists and donors than from physicians, nurses, and people struggling to afford care,” Harris said during a press conference Wednesday.

Aside from limiting political giving, the ballot initiative would also expand policies that require outside groups spending money on Michigan campaigns to reveal their donors.

››› Trump’s multilevel grift is bigger than we realized

Last week, we talked about how Trump appears to have engaged in a bit of insider trading when he traded stocks on the blockbuster weight loss drugs that his administration has been promoting through favorable policies and on his discount prescription drug site TrumpRx.

This week, we’re learning there was more. This from reporting by Becker’s Payer Issues:

President Donald Trump’s portfolio managers traded seven health insurers’ stocks as 2027 Medicare Advantage payment policies were being ironed out.

The U.S. Office of Government Ethics released disclosures in May laying out thousands of trades in the first three months of 2026. President Trump’s portfolio traded UnitedHealth Group, Humana, Molina Healthcare, Centene, The Cigna Group, CVS Health and Elevance Health. Other than Cigna, all of these payers offer MA plans.

In late January, CMS proposed almost flat MA payments for 2027. Just weeks later, President Trump’s portfolio sold between $1 million and $5 million in UnitedHealth shares Feb. 10. The president’s portfolio also sold between $100,001 and $250,000 in Humana shares that same day, ahead of some smaller sales throughout the rest of the month.

Trump’s self-dealing is multilevel, however. In addition to insider trading, he is simply collecting checks from others who do business with the federal government – what most of us call a bribe. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing the FDA’s decision to approve fruit-flavored vapes under the Orwellian excuse that it would tamp down on underage use of e-cigarettes.

We speculated then that there was some sort of quid pro quo involved and, sure enough, The New York Times is reporting that a Big Tobacco company made a $5 million donation to Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC just before the FDA announced its decision:

The tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to a super PAC backed by President Trump last month, about one week before his administration rolled out a new policy that could prove lucrative to the tobacco industry.

The donation, which came through a Reynolds subsidiary and brings to $8 million the total donated by the subsidiary to MAGA Inc., the Trump-backed super PAC, was revealed in a campaign finance report filed Wednesday night.

The Times says two days after the donation, Trump had lunch with several tobacco company executives where they complained about how the FDA was regulating them. “Mr. Trump interrupted the conversation to call Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA commissioner,” the Times reports. When Makary didn’t pick up, he called RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz to share the Big Tobacco exec’s complaints with them. The decision on the fruit-flavored vapes came days later.

The Brennan Center for Justice reported on similar self-interested corporate donations to Trump’s super PAC last August with United Healthcare contributing $5M. Their previous largest political contribution was just $200k in 2022.

››› Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks continue to reveal cracks in the US response

As we have discussed previously on this podcast, the recent hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship has shown failure of the US public health system to respond quickly and effectively. As the Ebola outbreak in Africa has grown to be the third largest in history, more evidence of this is becoming apparent.

In the middle of it all, the acting director of the U.S. NIH’s infectious disease institute has quit.

Rather than dealing with Americans infected with Ebola in our own country, the Trump administration is preventing them from coming here. The New York Times reports that, unlike in previous outbreaks where patients were repatriated to be treated, this time around they’re being sent to Kenya. At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The number one priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola into the United States.”

The situation has shown the hypocrisy of members of the Trump administration when it comes to dealing with a global health crisis.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC acting director and NIH director Jay Bhattacharya was highly critical of lockdowns and quarantines. He was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, along with Bond villain Martin Kulldorff and Sunetra Gupta. The Great Barrington Declaration advocated lifting COVID-19 restrictions and letting the disease spread wildly to create herd immunity through widespread infection (with apparent magic thinking that they could keep vulnerable people safe from the lethal virus.)

Now Dr. Bhattacharya has significantly changed his tune. Last week, citing public health laws, he issued quarantine orders for two passengers from the stricken cruise ship who wanted to leave a Nebraska quarantine facility and isolate themselves in their home states. “I think it’s incredibly ironic that Jay Bhattacharya signed the quarantine orders himself, given how much of a devotee he has been to the notion that people should feel free to do what they want if they are sick, regardless of who may be harmed,” one biosecurity expert said.

››› Understaffing at NIH is prevalent from top to bottom

STAT is reporting that 15 of 27 NIH institutes are being led by acting directors:

Across the Department of Health and Human Services, top leadership positions are being filled with acting directors. There is no permanent director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or at the Food and Drug Administration. President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general is yet to be confirmed, and HHS’ top spokesperson resigned last week.

The National Institutes of Health may appear to have more stable leadership, with Director Jay Bhattacharya and his deputies holding their positions. But just below the surface, a leadership vacuum has persisted for months, with 15 of the 27 institutes being led by acting directors. The dearth of permanent leadership at the institutes, which oversee research in a specific topic area, means that the institutes are unable to plan long-term projects, or offer reassurances to a research community that is seeing unprecedented changes in federal funding priorities.

Here’s more from reporting by NATURE:

A staffing shortage is making it difficult for the NIH to spend its $47-billion budget by awarding research grants.

It is missing dozens of staff members, called grants management specialists (GMSs), who are crucial to handling the business and administrative aspects of issuing grants. Many GMSs either resigned or were laid off in 2025 by the administration of US President Donald Trump as it sought to downsize the federal workforce. Nearly 20% of the NIH’s employees left last year.

At least one of the NIH’s 27 institutes and centres has lost so many GMSs that it has asked early-career researchers, including postdocs and graduate students, who work in the NIH’s own labs to consider working temporarily as a GMS on a volunteer basis, according to internal documents, meeting notes and e-mails that Nature has obtained. The institute, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), projected in March that it would be able to issue only about 5% of the new awards it gives out in a typical year because of the personnel shortage, the documents reveal.

››› Turns out Trump’s pick for Surgeon General is a grifter, too…

Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s latest pick for Surgeon General – not to be confused with his new acting Surgeon General, that’s Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos (wife of Congressman Mike Haridopolos) – should fit in just fine with all the other grifters in the administration. Saphier exploits a tax loophole intended for New Jersey farmers to lower her property taxes despite publicly saying, “The reality is, I’m not a real farmer. I just kind of pretend like I am.”

From reporting by POLITICO:

Saphier’s farmland designation is being met with skepticism. Jack Curtis is a member of the State Farmland Evaluation Committee, which oversees part of the farmland program. Upon seeing photos of Saphier’s 16,000 square foot home — which was purchased for $5.8 million in 2023 — he said that her estate was the “poster child” for what he viewed as abuses of the law.

“If you want privacy and you want 10 acres of land surrounding [your] estate, great — good for you,” he told POLITICO. “But pay your taxes. That’s all.”

In her application for the tax break, Saphier reported “$1,000+” in “anticipated” farm income on just 0.15 acres. That’s a “farm” that measures about 80 feet by 80 feet..

››› “Chickenpox parties” are back.

Those of us of a certain age may remember the “chickenpox parties” held by our parents, usually our moms, where neighborhood kids would gather for a play date to be exposed to the virulent virus by one or more of their friends. The idea was that, in a time before a chickenpox vaccine, it was almost a certainty that their children would get it so they wanted to do it in a controlled environment at a prescribed time.

WIRED reports that, despite the availability of a highly effective vaccine, chickenpox parties are back:

“Hey mamas,” TikTok creator Hannah Grabau Kugel joked about a post she’d seen on social media. “Any other grass-fed, free-range mamas interested in hosting a chickenpox party with me?”

Her tone was ironic, but the subtext is not—it’s reflective of something real that people are noticing pop up in some parenting groups on Facebook. Last year, the owner of a children’s indoor activity center in the UK was tipped off about one of these parties happening at her venue, the BBC reported. She put a stop to it, and labeled the idea “shocking and selfish.”

The anti-vax movement, and the idea that “naturally” acquired immunity is preferable, persists.

The problem with all of this, of course, is that it can be deadly. More from WIRED:

While varicella-zoster is usually a mild, self-limiting disease in children, it can be much more severe—and sometimes life-threatening—in adults.

“I had an otherwise healthy adult patient who died of chickenpox pneumonia when I was first practicing,” [associate dean of clinical research and public health at Creighton University in Omaha Maureen Tierney says]. “You never forget those scenarios.” [...]

While the majority of children who develop chickenpox feel well again within a week or two, around three in every 1,000 infected experience a severe complication such as pneumonia, serious bacterial skin infections, encephalitis, or meningitis.

“Some kids get really, really sick,” says Jill Morgan, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and an expert in pediatric health. “The problem is, if you had these parties, you didn’t know which kids would get over it and be OK, and which kids would end up in the hospital.”

››› The weekly “RFK Jr. does weird things” segment

RFK Jr. the head of the world’s largest health agency, is in the news for doing weird stuff again this week. This time, he captured a pair of non-venomous southern black racer snakes on the patio of Dr. Oz’s home. He was bitten during the encounter, prior to knowing what kind of snakes they were. You can watch the video HERE.

He was also back on the “circumcision causes autism” beat again this week, telling the attendees at a Trump cabinet meeting that there are “many, many…confirmation studies” proving the link, saying it’s “highly likely” it’s because they were given Tylenol. Trump backed him up saying he’s studied circumcisions for a long time. You can watch that exchange HERE.

››› This week Trump had his second annual physical in less than a year

This week, Trump had what the White House called an “annual preventive checkup”, his second one in just 7 months and his third doctor’s visit in the past 13 months. The three-hour visit went entirely unexplained other than Trump himself declaring that, “Everything checked out PERFECTLY” on Truth Social.

Via NPR:

Trump, who turns 80 years old in June, is the oldest person to take the oath of office and he is the second oldest president in U.S. history after President Joe Biden. His age, swollen ankles and bruised hands have sparked repeated questions about the president’s health and fitness.

Trump’s last annual physical examination was in April of last year. Shortly after, the President told reporters he “aced” the cognitive test and the White House released a memo reporting that Trump was in “excellent health.”

A few months later, he went back to Walter Reed for a “scheduled follow-up” in October — which sparked renewed concerns about his health.

By December, the White House revealed that Trump received a CT scan to further assess his “cardiovascular and abdominal health.” White House physician Capt. Sean Barbabella said the president “remains in excellent overall health.”

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #55

• Michigan Public: Petition drive to get “money out of politics” submits signatures for ballot campaign

• Becker’s Payer Issues: Trump’s portfolio traded 7 health insurer stocks amid MA rate discourse

• The Hill: FDA approves some flavored vapes after reports of Trump pressure

• The New York Times: A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision

• Brennan Center for Justice: Unprecedented Big Money Surge for Super PAC Tied to Trump

• Reuters: Acting head of US NIH infectious disease institute has left, senators say

• The New York Times: Trump Administration to Send Americans Exposed to Ebola to Kenya

• The Hill: Key takeaways from Trump’s Cabinet meeting: Iran, Ebola, midterms

• Wikipedia: Great Barrington Declaration

• MedPage Today: CDC Chief Orders 2 Americans to Quarantine Over Hantavirus Concern

• The New York Times: Health Experts ‘Stunned’ by Trump Officials’ Strict Quarantine Measures

• STAT: NIH behind in filling top roles, with 15 of 27 institutes led by acting directors

• NATURE: NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

• The Hill: GOP House rep’s wife to perform duties of U.S. surgeon general

• Nicole Saphier’s Instagram post saying she’s only pretending to be a doctor is HERE

• POLITICO: Nicole Saphier is Trump’s pick for surgeon general. She’s also a ‘farmer’ in New Jersey — and gets a tax break.

• WIRED: The Backward Logic of Chickenpox Parties

• RFK Jr.’s post showing him catching snakes is HERE

• Video of RFK Jr. at Trump cabinet meeting talking about circumcision again is HERE

• MedPage Today: After 3-Hour Medical Visit, Trump Says ‘Everything Checked Out PERFECTLY’

• Trump on Truth Social referencing his medical visit is HERE

• NPR: Trump to get ‘routine annual’ medical exam 7 months after last visit to Walter Reed

• Dr. Rob Davidson administers a cognitive exam to Jim Acosta HERE

• The Jim Acosta Show on Substack is HERE

WATCH EPISODE 56 HERE

It’s a striking contrast to the week’s other big story: a deepening portrait of federal pay-to-play, with Trump’s portfolio managers day-trading health insurer stocks while Medicare Advantage payment policy was being written, and a $5 million Big Tobacco donation to MAGA Inc. preceding a very convenient FDA vaping decision by just days.

Meanwhile, the NIH is so understaffed it’s asking grad students to volunteer as grants administrators, the Ebola outbreak has become the third-largest in history, and the acting head of the infectious disease institute just quit.

Trump’s Surgeon General pick is exploiting a New Jersey farm tax loophole on her $5.8 million estate, chickenpox parties are making a comeback, and RFK Jr. got bitten by a snake at Dr. Oz’s house.

Plus, Dr. Rob administered a cognitive test to legendary journalist Jim Acosta on his show. We interviewed him after the test to discuss his results and why Trump would be bragging about passing such an easy test.

• Michigan Public: Petition drive to get “money out of politics” submits signatures for ballot campaign

• Becker’s Payer Issues: Trump’s portfolio traded 7 health insurer stocks amid MA rate discourse

• The Hill: FDA approves some flavored vapes after reports of Trump pressure

• The New York Times: A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision

• Brennan Center for Justice: Unprecedented Big Money Surge for Super PAC Tied to Trump

• Reuters: Acting head of US NIH infectious disease institute has left, senators say

• The New York Times: Trump Administration to Send Americans Exposed to Ebola to Kenya

• The Hill: Key takeaways from Trump’s Cabinet meeting: Iran, Ebola, midterms

• Wikipedia: Great Barrington Declaration

• MedPage Today: CDC Chief Orders 2 Americans to Quarantine Over Hantavirus Concern

• The New York Times: Health Experts ‘Stunned’ by Trump Officials’ Strict Quarantine Measures

• STAT: NIH behind in filling top roles, with 15 of 27 institutes led by acting directors

• NATURE: NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

• The Hill: GOP House rep’s wife to perform duties of U.S. surgeon general

• Nicole Saphier’s Instagram post saying she’s only pretending to be a doctor is HERE

• POLITICO: Nicole Saphier is Trump’s pick for surgeon general. She’s also a ‘farmer’ in New Jersey — and gets a tax break.

• WIRED: The Backward Logic of Chickenpox Parties

• RFK Jr.’s post showing him catching snakes is HERE

• Video of RFK Jr. at Trump cabinet meeting talking about circumcision again is HERE

• MedPage Today: After 3-Hour Medical Visit, Trump Says ‘Everything Checked Out PERFECTLY’

• Trump on Truth Social referencing his medical visit is HERE

• NPR: Trump to get ‘routine annual’ medical exam 7 months after last visit to Walter Reed

• Dr. Rob Davidson administers a cognitive exam to Jim Acosta HERE

• The Jim Acosta Show on Substack is HERE

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Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• Des Moines Register: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs Iowa law restricting mail-order abortion pills.

• Via ABORTION, EVERY DAY:

In a new survey of abortion providers, the National Abortion Federation reports rising anti-abortion violence and threats. The report comes just weeks after the Trump administration released a 900-page report downplaying anti-abortion violence, painting extremists as peaceful protesters targeted for their religious views.

Of the 300 clinics that responded to NAF’s survey, 200 reported violence or harassment—including death threats, break-ins or attempted break-ins, and stalking.

• Also from AED: North Carolina Bill Would Legalize Killing Abortion Providers and Advocates—Seriously

• NPR: Abortion pills “just in case”? Planned Parenthood will offer them in two states:

The initiative…launched Thursday and is called "Just In Case Abortion Pills." It means people can have the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol on their shelf to be used in the future if they want to end an early pregnancy.

• A new Vanderbilt poll shows that a shocking 24% of Tennesseans would support charging women who get abortions with homicide which is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.

• PROPUBLICA: She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help. (Warning: this article describes the horrific medical advice and “treatment” Emily Waldorf was given.)

• In related news from the AMA, abortion bans are negatively impacting miscarriage medical care.

• Anti-abortion forces are have taken to issuing threats to the Trump administration, pushing them to outlaw abortion medications:

“Our patience has run out,” Kristi Hamrick, who leads federal policy with Students for Life of America told POLITICO. “The pro-life movement, like many other parts of the [Republican] coalition, made an investment in Donald Trump. We want a return on that investment.”

Health Care Affordability

• A new survey by KFF estimates that as many as 5 million people will drop their Obamacare health insurance this year. RFK Jr. says it’s because they got rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, not the fact that premiums skyrocketed after Republicans failed to renew the enhanced subsidies.

• STAT: Virginia governor vetoes legislation to create an advisory panel to lower the cost of prescription drugs:

“The veto is baffling,” said AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau in a statement. He noted that recent polling found that 82% of Virginia voters supported the legislation. “By signing the Affordable Medicine Act, she had a clear opportunity to deliver similar relief to Virginians outside Medicare and to hold Big Pharma accountable.”

• Meanwhile, Illinois legislators are considering Prescription Drug Affordability Board legislation.

Trump Administration News

• Amid the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, the acting director of the U.S. NIH’s infectious disease institute has quit. (Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the two outbreaks.) The Ebola outbreak is now the third largest in history, with at least 224 suspected deaths and 913 suspected cases reported.

• The New York Times: Trump Administration to Send Americans Exposed to Ebola to Kenya:

The approach is a stark contrast to the way previous administrations responded to outbreaks, during which health care workers and other U.S. citizens exposed to the virus were brought home to be treated at specialized medical units. The administration this month flew an American doctor who developed symptoms to a hospital in Germany, and transported six other Americans for monitoring in Germany and the Czech Republic.

• RELATED from The Washington Post: White House resisted letting doctor with Ebola return to U.S.

• RELATED from Bloomberg News: US Ebola Spending Plunged 99% in Five Years Since Last Outbreak

• At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The number one priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola into the United States.”

• Following his yearslong effort to remove vaccine makers’ federal liability protections, RFK Jr. is now offering immunity for developing a vaccine for the Andes hantavirus.

• In other Trump administration hypocrisy news:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the [CDC], drew notice during the Covid-19 pandemic for suggesting that the coronavirus should be allowed to spread freely among healthy people, and for arguing that mandatory quarantines and lockdowns were harmful to society.

Last week, however, he issued quarantine orders that cited public health laws for two passengers who wanted to leave the Nebraska [hantavirus quarantine] facility and isolate in their home states.

• We may have an answer as to why the Trump administration approved fruit-flavored vapes as “an effort to tamp down on underage use” of e-cigarettes. Via The New York Times: A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision. This may also explain why FDA staff were blindsided by the approvals.

• In another apparent grift, Trump seems to be benefiting from insider trading. KFF Health News reports that he recently bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly, the maker of the obesity drugs that his administration is benefiting with its policies. It doesn’t stop there: Barron’s reports that Trump’s portfolio managers traded UnitedHealth ahead of favorable Medicare policy changes.

• Trump had a 3-hour ‘routine annual’ medical exam this week, his third doctor’s visit in the past 13 months and just 7 months after his last one. Apparently, “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”

• Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s latest pick for Surgeon General – not to be confused with his new acting Surgeon General, that’s Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos – should fit in perfectly with all the other grifters in the administration. She exploits a tax break intended for farmers to lower her property taxes despite saying, “The reality is, I’m not a real farmer. I just kind of pretend like I am.”

• STAT: NIH behind in filling top roles, with 15 of 27 institutes led by acting directors

• RELATED from NATURE: NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year

• Without explanation, RFK Jr. summarily fired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s two leaders last week. The move appears designed to give him more control over the members of the group that decides which medical services are preventive and must be covered fully by insurers under the ACA.

• NBC News reports that no child deaths have been definitively linked to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a report from the FDA that was quietly made public last week, contradicting FDA vaccine chief Vinay Prasad.

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Then we get into the chaotic state of public health leadership: the Trump administration tapped a penile implant specialist with a YouTube show called Erection Connection to front its hantavirus press conference. The surgeon general position remains vacant — until now, sort of, filled temporarily by a congressman’s wife. Plus: RFK Jr. is reclassifying hundreds of senior HHS career staff to strip their civil service protections, fired the leadership of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force without explanation, and his MAHA allies are celebrating after Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his Louisiana primary.

We also look at stock trades suggesting Trump may have profited from insider knowledge on Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 drugs, the administration’s push to make European countries pay more for pharmaceuticals so Americans pay less, a quiet reversal on ACIP’s new charter, and TrumpRx’s new partnership with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs.

Plus, our interview with State Rep. Donovan McKinney, where he discusses Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, also known as Mop Up Michigan. It’s a ballot initiative to curb corporate influence in politics and address economic disparities. Representing the state’s lowest-income district, McKinney argues that corporate monopoly money stifles legislative action on crucial issues like rising healthcare costs and affordability.

Background Reading:

• The Hill: Supreme Court preserves abortion pill access over Alito, Thomas dissents

• ABORTION, EVERY DAY: Republicans Aren’t Done With Mifepristone

• CNN: Penile implant specialist with history of far-right comments led hantavirus presser

• KFF Health News: Trump Bought Stock in Drugmaker as His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs

• The Hill: GOP House rep’s wife to perform duties of U.S. surgeon general

• STAT: Kennedy names interim surgeon general amid vacancies atop health department

• Bloomberg (via MSN): RFK Jr. taps Haridopolos as temporary surgeon general

• POLITICO: RFK Jr.’s department to make it easier to fire career staff

• POLITICO: RFK Jr. fires leaders of group that determines what insurers must cover

• STAT: Top U.S. officials pressured Germany to pay more for prescription drugs

• Rep. Donavan McKinney’s House Dems webpage is HERE

• Planet Detroit: As Michigan insurance costs rise, ballot drive highlights Blue Cross lobbying

• The Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (Mop Up Michigan) website is HERE

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Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• Last Thursday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling that keeps the abortion medication mifepristone available via telehealth while the lower court hears the case.

• The Committee delivered a letter signed by over 2200 physicians calling on the Court to reaffirm patients’ access to this safe medication to the Supreme Court in advance of the ruling, and Committee physicians spoke out in the aftermath. This was covered by NC Newsline in an article titled, “Doctors voice ‘temporary relief’ as SCOTUS allows mifepristone via mail to continue for now.”

• Committee Board Chair Dr. Kristen Lyerly was quoted in a Mississippi Today article titled, “The Supreme Court is deciding the fate of mail-order abortion pills. How will it affect Mississippians?”

• Jessica Valenti at ABORTION, EVERY DAY laid out the politics of the ruling:

[I]n terms of the broader politics and long-term access, the decision was a mixed bag: by returning the case to a lower court, SCOTUS bought precious time for Republicans, who aren’t eager to deal with one of their most unpopular issues before the midterms. Dissents from Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also laid out a legal roadmap for conservatives going forward—with Alito arguing that telemedicine abortion undermines the Court’s decision in Dobbs, and Thomas pointing to the Comstock Act.

• Last Saturday, Virginians for Reproductive Freedom (VRF) officially launched its ballot campaign in Richmond with an incredible turnout of more than 400 supporters. The Committee was proud to have Committee Advocate Dr. Amy Nelson help kick off the campaign with powerful remarks about the importance of protecting reproductive freedom and keeping medical decisions between patients and their doctors. You can endorse the VRF HERE.

• Some good news from Montana: Court affirms Montana’s Constitutional amendment to protect abortion

• The Hill: Trump administration sued by veterans group over VA abortion ban. The ban prohibits abortions and counseling even in cases of rape or incest.

Health Care Affordability

• STAT: Maryland state [prescription drug] affordability board places a price cap on Ozempic

• STAT: Supreme Court rejects challenge to Medicare drug price negotiation

Trump Administration News

• We now know why FDA chief Marty Makary quit: he didn’t support the approval of fruit-flavored nicotine vapes or the ridiculous rationale for the approvals. The agency actually said that the approvals were an effort to tamp down on underage use of e-cigarettes. Kyle Diamantas is now the FDA’s acting commissioner.

• RFK Jr.’s chief spokesperson Rich Danker resigned for the same reasons. Apparently marketing addictive nicotine to children is a bridge too far for some people, at least.

• PROBABLY RELATED via AP: Michigan teen tobacco use ticks up as prevention funding lags. From the article: “E-cigarettes were the most common form of tobacco used by Michigan high schoolers.”

• Anti-abortion leaders are taking credit for driving out Makary. They were furious he hadn’t done more to ban mifepristone.

• At an Oval Office event last week to roll out the new government website Moms.gov, a government website for expectant mothers, Dr. Oz said that “one in three Americans are under-babied.”

• Jessica Valenti describes Moms.gov as “a government-run website that funnels women to crisis pregnancy centers.”

• This seems like a Bad Thing, via KFF Health News: Trump and Kennedy Seek To Relax Safeguards for AI Healthcare Tools

• The Trump Grift continues, via KFF Health News: Trump Bought Stock in Drugmaker as His Government Boosted Its Obesity Drugs

• The Hill: White House threatens to withhold Medicaid money from [all 50] states over fraud. They’re already withholding $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursements to California.

• The Trump administration has made sweeping demands for confidential transgender patient information from Rhode Island’s largest hospital providing gender-affirming care to minors. A federal judge basically told them to pound sand. An NYU hospital received a similar demand from the DOJ and others likely did, as well.

• You really have to wonder if other countries take America seriously anymore. Via STAT:

Over a recent breakfast, U.S. officials had a message for the German ambassador: pay more for pharmaceuticals.

The meeting, between U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, chief health department adviser Chris Klomp, and German Ambassador Jens Hanefeld, was part of a larger push from the Trump administration to get other countries to pay more for medications as the U.S. pays less, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

• POLITICO reports that RFK Jr. is “moving hundreds of senior [HHS] career staff to a new civil service classification that will make it easier to fire them.” That’s because Russ Vought, the architect of Project 2025 and current White House Office of Management and Budget Director, believes career staff impeded Trump’s policies during his first term.

• The Hill reports that HHS has withdrawn its amended charter for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that would have loosened eligibility requirements, citing administrative errors. The group is returning to its original framework for the next two years.

• RFK Jr.’s supporters are doing a victory lap after Sen. Bill Cassidy lost his primary in Louisiana this week.

• NOTUS: TrumpRx Will Start Linking to Mark Cuban’s Discount Online Pharmacy:

Officials said Monday that more than 600 generic medications will be listed on TrumpRx.

Most of the drugs on the website can be purchased for similar prices at other online pharmacies. And the website doesn’t interact with health insurance plans, which are the primary way most Americans get their medications.

Other Health Care News

• Fierce Health Care reports that a bipartisan group of lawmakers has reintroduced a bill barring PBMs from owning pharmacies. In a bit of Congressional trolling, the bill is called the Patients Before Monopolies (PBM) Act.

• Virginia Mercury: Virginia becomes first Southern state to mandate paid family and medical leave for workers

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Host Miles welcomes KFF Senior Survey Manager Lunna Lopes to go past the talking points and look straight at the data. Lunna shares surprising insights from KFF’s latest health tracking poll, revealing a diverse, cross-partisan electorate that cares deeply about kitchen-table issues like the cost of health care. Tune in to find out where these voters put their trust, how they view federal agencies like the FDA and CDC, and what both parties need to know to win them over in November.

References:

• The Washington Post: Why 41 percent of Americans say they identify with the MAHA movement

• KFF Health Tracking Poll: MAHA and the Midterms

As we talked about with Katie Keith on last week’s show, Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito stayed a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that effectively banned the telehealth prescribing of the abortion pill mifepristone and stopped it from being available at pharmacies. The stay was only until this past Monday and briefs were required by the previous Thursday. On Monday, Alito extended the stay until Thursday of this week so things may have changed by the time you listen to this show. As of now, however, mifepristone remains available by telehealth and at pharmacies.

Strangely, the Trump administration declined to weigh in with a brief of its own.

Via NPR:

[T]he Department of Justice, which represents the Food and Drug Administration, did not file anything by the deadline defending the agency’s 2023 rule.

This is notable because the FDA is the actual defendant in the case and the FDA’s power to regulate prescription medicine is a key issue at stake.

“It’s wild that DOJ is taking no position on whether a federal regulation should or should not be blocked for the duration of this case,” said Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, in a social media post.

››› You can’t fire Marty Makary because HE QUITS!

At the end of last week, it was being reported that Trump was considering firing FDA chief Dr. Marty Makary. Trump was apparently grumpy that Makary dragged his feet on approving fruit-flavored nicotine vapes.

From reporting by The Hill:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday approved marketing for four flavored vapes made by the company Glas Inc. in what the agency says is an effort to tamp down on underage use of these products.

The FDA said the products will be age-restricted through the use of age verification with a government-issued ID and Bluetooth connection with one’s smartphone.

This action comes shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump had reprimanded FDA Commissioner Marty Makary for not approving flavored vape and nicotine products fast enough.

“By helping to prevent youth use, device access restrictions are a potential game changer,” Bret Koplow, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, said in a statement.

On Tuesday, before Trump could fire him, Makary resigned. This is from The New York Times:

Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, resigned on Tuesday after weeks of pressure and rumors that President Trump was planning to fire him.

Dr. Makary ultimately left over concerns about the administration’s decision to authorize fruit-flavored e-cigarettes, an action he opposed, according to four people familiar with the matter. Dr. Makary told those close to him that he could not in good conscience approve flavored vapes, given their appeal to young people, and would not do something he did not believe in.

››› Hantavirus outbreak shows failure of US public health system

A deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard a cruise ship has revealed cracks in public health infrastructure in the US, largely due to massive cuts to HHS. The Andes hantavirus variant can be passed from human to human.

Via The New York Times:

The Americans [aboard the ship] are now back on U.S. soil, and three states are monitoring them; none have shown symptoms so far. That information came on Wednesday — not from the [CDC] or from the State Department…but from the medical news publication MedPage Today…More than four hours after the news emerged, the C.D.C. issued its first public statement about the outbreak…It was only a day earlier, on Tuesday, that the agency had set up a team to respond to the outbreak, nearly a month after the first patient had died. [...]

To some public health experts, the alarming thing about this situation is not the hantavirus… It is that the administration’s sluggish response and lack of communication suggest the United States is ill prepared for a larger health crisis, such as another pandemic.

Days later, The Hill reports, RFK Jr. claimed the U.S. has the hantavirus “under control”, that “we’re not worried about it”, and that “we’ve had CDC teams on it from day one.”

The US left the World Health Organization (WHO) after Trump took office, an organization specifically set up to deal with this type of public health crisis. When asked about it, Trump said he was “glad” to have left the WHO because he believes the U.S. was paying too much into the organization.

The incident also shows the harm DOGE has done to our public health infrastructure.

Via Futurism:

[The outbreak] brought attention to an eyebrow-raising decision by the Trump administration made almost exactly a year ago. Targeted by sweeping cuts like other agencies as part of Elon Musk’s crusade to gut federal spending, the [CDC] cleared out almost its entire Vessel Sanitation Program, a key group that ensures ships are properly sanitized to prevent them from becoming the type of plague frigate the world is now dealing with.

››› RFK Jr. explored a ban of some widely used antidepressants

In exclusive reporting by Reuters, we are now learning the RFK Jr. is coming after your depression meds:

U.S. health department ​officials last week explored whether they could ban certain drugs in a widely prescribed class of antidepressants as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepared to roll out a ‌plan to reduce their use, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Their interest centered on specific treatments within a class known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, such as Zoloft, Prozac and Lexapro, which have been available in the U.S. for decades, one of the people said. The sources did not say which drugs were being examined for restrictions or how far the inquiries about them had advanced. [...]

Kennedy has…, without evidence, linked SSRIs to violence, including mass shootings, and said they pose a risk to fetuses when women who are pregnant take them. Kennedy in November said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was studying whether SSRI therapies contribute to mass violence, but has not provided details on that effort.

HHS says the reporting is “false.’’

The reporting comes as RFK Jr. is rolling out a plan to end what he calls the “overmedicalization” of mental health treatment.

Via CNN:

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan to reduce “overprescribing” of psychiatric medications and support alternative treatment options and discontinuation of medications when needed.

“Today, we take clear and decisive action to confront our nation’s mental health crisis by addressing the overuse of psychiatric medications, especially among children,” Kennedy said Monday at a MAHA Institute summit on mental health and overmedicalization.

Speaking to The New York Times, Dr. Marketa Wills, the chief executive and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association said, “We may take issue with this blanket ‘overprescribing’ hypothesis that underpins the secretary’s statements. There is probably overprescribing and underprescribing in all parts of medicine, and mental health care is no different. And there are people who still can’t access care at all who need it.”

››› Meanwhile, Kennedy has a secret research effort underway to prove vaccines are dangerous

It was revealed in exclusive reporting by The New York Times that, even as he has toned down his rhetoric about vaccines to appease the White House, RFK Jr. has a sprawling investigation underway to prove his beliefs that vaccines are dangerous:

Working behind the scenes, Mr. Kennedy is spearheading an intense push, across health agencies under his purview, for government scientists and federal data contractors to examine his long-held theory that vaccines are helping to fuel an epidemic of chronic disease, according to multiple people familiar with the effort.

They said the wide-ranging inquiry is a top priority for Mr. Kennedy, who sees vaccines as a “potential culprit” in various neurological and autoimmune disorders, including asthma and allergies. It resurrects research into a number of ideas Mr. Kennedy has espoused, including whether vaccines are linked to autism and whether thimerosal, a preservative that has largely been removed from vaccines in the United States but remains in some flu shots, is dangerous.

The investigation is being led by former Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) member Dr. Martin Kulldoff, now a member of the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee.

››› Dr. Oz is worried about too many urban babies

At an Oval Office event on Monday to roll out the new government website Moms.gov, a government website for expectant mothers, Dr. Oz made a truly remarkable statement. You can watch the clip HERE.

TRANSCRIPT: “The reality [is] that one in three Americans are under-babied. What does under-babied mean? That means that you either don’t have any children or you have less children than you would normally want to have. We have a crisis that’s causing our fertility rate to drop below 1.5. Replacement rate is 2.1. So, we’re way below what we need just to even replace the people that we have in America.”

Oz seems very worried that brown (”urban area”) people are going to replace white (”rural America”) people. “[O]ne of the challenges is that rural America, where there’s 60 million people, has a maternal mortality rate, when they have babies, that’s about 30 percent higher than if you live in an urban area.”

He also referenced how TrumpRx is bringing down the cost of fertility drugs and how that’s going to help. “For [the cost of fertility drugs] to drop by 90% dramatically changes the equation,” he said. “As the services get better, we make them more affordable, we’ll have more Trump babies.”

He went on to say, “MAHA is probably vital to this effort. You have to get moms healthy enough to do the most creative thing the universe knows, which is making babies.”

RFK Jr. used the event to talk about sperm. “In 1970, men had twice the sperm count as our teenagers do today,” he said. “This is an existential crisis for our country.”

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #55

• The Hill: Supreme Court extends pause on abortion pill restrictions through Thursday

• NPR: With legal briefs in, Supreme Court weighs telehealth access for the abortion pill

• NBC News: Trump weighs firing Dr. Marty Makary as FDA chief

• The Hill: FDA approves some flavored vapes after reports of Trump pressure

• The New York Times: F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns After Weeks of Pressure

• The New York Times: Hantavirus Response Shows How Trump Cuts Have Compromised U.S. Preparedness

• The Hill: RFK Jr.: ‘We’re not worried’ about hantavirus spreading after cruise ship outbreak

• NBC News: U.S. departure from WHO could hinder hantavirus response

• Futurism: The CDC Fired All Its Cruise Ship Inspectors Before the Hantavirus Outbreak

• Reuters: Kennedy’s health officials explored US ban of some widely used antidepressants

• CNN Health: RFK Jr. launches plan to address ‘overuse’ of psychiatric medications

• The New York Times: Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants

• The New York Times: Kennedy Is Driving a Vast Inquiry Into Vaccines, Despite His Public Silence

• Moms.gov

• Dr. Oz’s “under-babied” comments are HERE

• Dr. Oz’s “Trump babies” comments are HERE

• PEOPLE: RFK Jr. Says Men in the ‘70s Had Twice as Much Sperm as Teenage Boys Today: ‘Existential Crisis’

WATCH EPISODE 55 HERE

Background reading:

• The Hill: Supreme Court extends pause on abortion pill restrictions through Thursday

• NPR: With legal briefs in, Supreme Court weighs telehealth access for the abortion pill

• NBC News: Trump weighs firing Dr. Marty Makary as FDA chief

• The Hill: FDA approves some flavored vapes after reports of Trump pressure

• The New York Times: F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns After Weeks of Pressure

• The New York Times: Hantavirus Response Shows How Trump Cuts Have Compromised U.S. Preparedness

• The Hill: RFK Jr.: ‘We’re not worried’ about hantavirus spreading after cruise ship outbreak

• NBC News: U.S. departure from WHO could hinder hantavirus response

• Futurism: The CDC Fired All Its Cruise Ship Inspectors Before the Hantavirus Outbreak

• Reuters: Kennedy’s health officials explored US ban of some widely used antidepressants

• CNN Health: RFK Jr. launches plan to address ‘overuse’ of psychiatric medications

• The New York Times: Kennedy Starts a Push to Help Americans Quit Antidepressants

• The New York Times: Kennedy Is Driving a Vast Inquiry Into Vaccines, Despite His Public Silence

• Moms.gov

• Dr. Oz’s “under-babied” comments are HERE

• Dr. Oz’s “Trump babies” comments are HERE

• PEOPLE: RFK Jr. Says Men in the ‘70s Had Twice as Much Sperm as Teenage Boys Today: ‘Existential Crisis

Join the fight at committeetoprotect.org.

Subscribe, share, and leave a rating to help more people find Paging America.

Have thoughts, questions, or your own health care story? Email us at feedback@pagingamerica.org.

Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion

• Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito extended his stay of a Fifth Circuit Court’s mifepristone ruling until May 14, maintaining telehealth access of the abortion medication for now. The Trump administration declined to file a brief weighing in on the decision which is bizarre since the FDA is the actual defendant in the case and the FDA’s power to regulate prescription medicine is a key issue at stake.

• Trying to save his beleaguered re-election campaign, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy is calling for the FDA to speed up its “investigation” into the safety of mifepristone. “The FDA must stop dragging its feet and reinstate commonsense safeguards to protect women from abuse and coercion,” Cassidy said Tuesday.

• The GOP is trying out a new way to ban abortion:

Republicans have introduced a national abortion ban, and they think Americans are too stupid to realize it.

Last week, Senate and House Republicans introduced legislation that would effectively ban abortion after 12 weeks by criminalizing dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedures—the most common way to end a pregnancy in the second trimester.

• Kylie Cheung at ABORTION, EVERY DAY calls it another one of “the GOP’s endless innovations in torturing women”.

• WUSF: OB-GYN says Florida’s six-week abortion ban has taken a toll on prenatal care

• A new study says there is evidence of a 9.2% increase in pregnancy-related deaths due to abortion bans.

Health Care Affordability

• New polling from Navigator shows that costs top the list of health care concerns for voters:

• The poll also shows that voters place the blame for high costs mostly at the feet of insurance companies, Big Pharma, and federal lawmakers.

• Because of this, AXIOS reports, Republicans are in big trouble heading into the midterms.

• A new report shows that the nation’s biggest hospital chains are charging higher rates and making massive profits.

Trump Administration News

• The New York Times: Hantavirus Response Shows How Trump Cuts Have Compromised U.S. Preparedness

• RELATED from NBC News: U.S. departure from WHO could hinder hantavirus response

• RELATED from Futurism: The CDC Fired All Its Cruise Ship Inspectors Before the Hantavirus Outbreak

• The Hill reports that state health insurance exchanges are starting to feel the impacts of GOP cuts to insurance premium subsidies.

• Trump appeared poised to fire FDA chief Marty Makary. Yesterday, he resigned.

  The New York Times reports that, although RFK Jr. has toned down his public criticism of vaccines, inside his department, a sprawling research effort to examine his long-held theory that vaccines are helping to fuel an epidemic of chronic disease is a top priority.

• Reuters: Kennedy’s health officials explored US ban of some widely used antidepressants

• The Guardian explores the background of Nicole Saphier, Trump’s new nominee for surgeon general. Turns out she has “cast doubt on the childhood vaccine schedule, public health interventions for Covid, and healthcare for transgender children [and] she owns her own supplement company as well.”

• That company is called DropRx where she sells what she calls “clean, thoughtfully crafted tinctures that support focus, calm, balance, and overall wellness, without unnecessary fillers or hype…inspired by both traditional herbal wisdom and modern scientific insight, and designed to fit seamlessly into real life.”

• She is also anti-abortion.

• Trump has appointed yet another vaccine skeptic to be RFK Jr.’s senior counselor for public health.

Other Health Care News

• NOTUS: One in Five HealthCare.gov Enrollees Dropped Insurance Coverage This Year

• RELATED from Charles Gaba: CMS admits over 3.0 MILLION have already lost ACA coverage so far this year

• The chickens from last year’s GOP big beautiful tax giveaway law are coming home to roost:

At Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr. Community Hospital…which sits on a sprawling medical campus close to the predominantly Latino and Black neighborhood of Watts, is struggling for financial stability. [...]

MLK, like many other hospitals, is scrambling to secure outside financing to avert serious disruptions of medical services when the brunt of the policies contained in the federal law begins to hit early next year. The hospital’s leadership team projects a revenue hole of $80 million to $100 million annually for the foreseeable future. It would be MLK’s largest budget gap since it opened in 2015.

• The largest safety net hospital in Minnesota is facing the same fate.

  RELATED from CBS News: Several Pittsburgh-area hospitals could be at risk of closing, watchdog report claims

• New polling from KFF shows that about four in ten voters consider themselves MAHA supporters. It turns out they are not fire-breathing anti-vaxers or Trump/RFK Jr. supporters.

• It also turns out their biggest concern is the cost of health care:

• Big news out of Oregon on the corporate control of medicine:

A bitter courtroom battle that put corporate control of medicine under an unforgiving spotlight in Oregon ended in a tentative settlement Wednesday…The case, brought by a local emergency physicians group against PeaceHealth, provided the first major test of Oregon’s toughest‑in‑the‑nation law banning corporations from exerting authority over a physician’s medical judgment and clinical practices.

• RELATED op-ed from Committee Advocate Sonja Halvorson in MedPage Today: Get Your Hands Off My Patients!

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››› There have been MAJOR developments regarding the abortion medication mifepristone

In October 2025, Louisiana’s Attorney General filed a lawsuit to prohibit telehealth and pharmacy access to mifepristone. A federal judge put the case on hold pending the completion of a so-called “safety review” of the drug by the FDA. Louisiana appealed the judge’s ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last Friday, the 5th Circuit Court ruled in favor of Louisiana and issued a national stay on the dispensing of mifepristone via telehealth. The ruling even impacts states where abortion is legal and cuts off telemedicine prescribing of the drug for non-abortion purposes, such as easing miscarriages.

Mifepristone manufacturer Danco appealed the ruling but, after no response from the 5th Circuit Court, both Danco and GenBioPro, another manufacturer, appealed to the Supreme Court over the weekend and, on Monday morning, Justice Samuel Alito issued a stay until May 11, temporarily restoring access.

On today’s show, Dr. Rob talked to Katie Keith from the Center for Health Policy and the Law at the O’Neill Institute about these latest developments, what’s next, and what the national implications are if telehealth abortions are banned nationally.

››› Casey Means is out, Dr. Nicole Saphier is in

The long road to becoming “the Nation’s Doctor” has ended for wellness influencer Casey Means. A triumph for those doctors, nurses, and people of good conscience - who organized against reckless candidacy. A mix of pressure ended her candidacy - including her dubious position on vaccines which created opposition from the center and left - her ambiguous position on reproductive rights which created friction with the right - and her outspoken enjoyment of magic mushrooms which irked elderly Maine Senator Susan Collins only - derailed her candidacy.

This is a big “L” for MAHA, RFK Jr., and the Trump administration. So where do we go from here? Back to the well from which all cabinet secretaries must emerge.

In her place, Trump has nominated a third woman for the vacant Surgeon General position, FOX News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier. She is the second FOX News personality to be nominated for the position. Unlike Casey Means, Saphier, a radiologist, has a medical license. Like Casey Means - she harnesses shamelessness to seize power in the American Public Health Infrastructure for reasons obtuse and confusing.

Never letting a loss go to waste, Trump blamed Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy – who he called a “very disloyal person” playing “political games” – for Means’ lack of support. So did Means’ brother Calley, RFK Jr., and Trump’s pick over Cassidy in the upcoming Senate primary, Julia Letlow.) Means herself blamed Sen. Lisa Murkowski.

Saphier published a book titled Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis in 2020, several years before the Trump administration coined the term, and has a podcast titled “Wellness Unmasked with Dr. Nicole Saphier.” She graduated from the Ross University School of Medicine, a for-profit training institution in Barbados, in 2008.

Via The Hill:

Saphier is a radiologist who has served as a Fox News contributor since 2018. She is also the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center-Monmouth.

Additionally, Saphier runs the “Wellness Unmasked” podcast, where she engages in “unfiltered conversations” about wellness and provides “evidence-based insight” about healthy living practices.

The Guardian reports that, “Saphier has also cast doubt on the childhood vaccine schedule, public health interventions for COVID, and healthcare for transgender children. She owns her own supplement company as well.”

That company is called DropRx where she sells what she calls “clean, thoughtfully crafted tinctures that support focus, calm, balance, and overall wellness, without unnecessary fillers or hype…inspired by both traditional herbal wisdom and modern scientific insight, and designed to fit seamlessly into real life.”

She is also anti-abortion.

POLITICO reports that the MAHA crowd is decidedly NOT happy with the choice:

“Dr. Saphier would be a catastrophic mistake on messaging and communicating with MAHA at a time where the coalition is very fragile,” Alex Clark, a prominent MAHA activist who hosts a podcast for the conservative political group Turning Point USA, wrote in a Friday post to X for her 166,000 followers.

››› The FDA has buried multiple reports favorable to vaccines

In late April, we learned that the FDA had first delayed and then completely cancelled the publication of a report showing that, in addition to helping prevent people from getting COVID-19, the vaccines had had a measurable impact on reducing hospitalizations.

This week, The New York Times reported that there are other positive vaccine-related reports that are being buried:

Officials at the Food and Drug Administration have blocked publication of several studies supporting the safety of widely used vaccines against Covid-19 and shingles in recent months, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed.

The studies, which cost millions of dollars in public funds, were conducted by scientists at the agency, who worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records. They found serious side effects to be very rare.

In October, the scientists were directed to withdraw two Covid-19 vaccine studies that had been accepted for publication in medical journals. In February, top F.D.A. officials did not sign off on submitting abstracts about studies of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a major drug safety conference. [...]

Last June, Mr. Kennedy’s office asked career C.D.C. staff members to delete from the agency’s website a 17-page summary supporting the safety of thimerosal, an additive largely removed from vaccines 25 years ago. [...]

In posts on a website and on social media in August, Mr. Kennedy called for a prominent journal to “immediately retract” a large Danish study concluding that the vaccine additive aluminum salts was safe… The study was not retracted.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, a former high-ranking NIH official and chief executive of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, called the moves a “pretty active act of sabotage.”

››› New focus group report has a message for Democrats

And the message is: “Do more to sell your health care message”.

POLITICO reports on a pair of focus groups that Navigator Research conducted last week with people who have either experienced premium increases or have gone uninsured:

The voters’ responses show that Democrats, who are hammering President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers over soaring health care costs as a central part of their midterm strategy, still have some work to do to land their message.

“Democrats need to tell a bigger story and connect the dots — that the Democrats were the party that fought for the ACA and have been fighting to protect the ACA as Republicans, have been going after it almost like a death by 1,000 paper cuts,” said Melissa Toufanian, managing director at Navigator.

Margie Omero, a principal at Democratic polling firm GBAO, which worked with Navigator on the focus groups, said Democrats “need to be aggressive” in outlining the repercussions of Republicans’ health care cuts. “Just because you’ve said something 10 times doesn’t mean you don’t need to say it 90 more times.”

Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff seems to have gotten the memo. He released an ad this week titled, “This Is Why Things Don't Work For Ordinary People” that is powerful and blunt. In the four and half minute ad, he points to corruption as the primary reason things don’t work for ordinary people. But he doesn’t stop there. He gives concrete examples of how the health care system has been rigged by insurance corporations, Big Pharma, and corporate hospitals to ensure that costs stay high and their profits stay higher. You can watch the ad HERE.

Links for a deeper dive on Episode #54

• The Center for Health Policy and the Law at the O’Neill Institute’s website is HERE

• Katie Keith’s bio

• Louisiana Illuminator: Louisiana sues Food & Drug Administration to stop mailing of abortion medication

• Reuters: US judge pauses Louisiana’s challenge to FDA abortion drug rule

• ABC News: RFK Jr. launches FDA review of abortion pill

• Center for Reproductive Rights: 5th Circuit Limits Telehealth Provision of Abortion Pill

• CNN: Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail

• AXIOS: Abortion pill rulings cause whiplash and confusion

• Stateline: Unpacking the fight over telehealth access to abortion medication

• PBS: Trump’s new surgeon general nominee has both praised and criticized his administration

• Calley Means’ tweet about his sister’s demise

• RFK Jr.’s tweet about Casey Means’ demise

• Julia Letlow’s tweet about Casey Means’ demise

• POLITICO: Casey Means: Murkowski sank my nomination

• Radiology Business: President Trump nominates radiologist to serve as surgeon general

• The Hill: Who is Nicole Saphier, new Trump surgeon general nominee?

• The Guardian: Who is Nicole Saphier, Trump’s new nominee for US surgeon general?

• Drop Rx website

• The Drop Rx About page

• POLITICO: 4 facts about the new surgeon general nominee

• POLITICO: The new surgeon general nominee has a MAHA problem

• The Washington Post: CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits

• The New York Times: F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe

• POLITICO: Dem pollster says party should do more to sell health care message

• Sen. Jon Ossoff’s ad “This Is Why Things Don’t Work For Ordinary People”

WATCH EPISODE 54 HERE

In the second half of the show, Miles and Dr. Rob cover the collapse of Casey Means’ Surgeon General candidacy and the nomination of Fox News contributor, Dr. Nicole Saphier, a pandemic-era grievance podcaster already drawing fire from the MAHA coalition she was supposed to appease. They also discuss the FDA burying reports that are favorable to vaccines and new health care-related messaging guidance for Democrats.

Background reading:

• The Center for Health Policy and the Law at the O’Neill Institute’s website is HERE

• Katie Keith’s bio

• Louisiana Illuminator: Louisiana sues Food & Drug Administration to stop mailing of abortion medication

• Reuters: US judge pauses Louisiana’s challenge to FDA abortion drug rule

• ABC News: RFK Jr. launches FDA review of abortion pill

• Center for Reproductive Rights: 5th Circuit Limits Telehealth Provision of Abortion Pill

• CNN: Supreme Court temporarily restores ability to receive abortion drug mifepristone by mail

• AXIOS: Abortion pill rulings cause whiplash and confusion

• Stateline: Unpacking the fight over telehealth access to abortion medication

• PBS: Trump’s new surgeon general nominee has both praised and criticized his administration

• Calley Means’ tweet about his sister’s demise

• RFK Jr.’s tweet about Casey Means’ demise

• Julia Letlow’s tweet about Casey Means’ demise

• POLITICO: Casey Means: Murkowski sank my nomination

• Radiology Business: President Trump nominates radiologist to serve as surgeon general

• The Hill: Who is Nicole Saphier, new Trump surgeon general nominee?

• The Guardian: Who is Nicole Saphier, Trump’s new nominee for US surgeon general?

• Drop Rx website

• The Drop Rx About page

• POLITICO: 4 facts about the new surgeon general nominee

• POLITICO: The new surgeon general nominee has a MAHA problem

• The Washington Post: CDC won’t publish report showing covid shots cut likelihood of hospital visits

• The New York Times: F.D.A. Blocked Publication of Research Finding Covid and Shingles Vaccines Were Safe

• POLITICO: Dem pollster says party should do more to sell health care message

• Sen. Jon Ossoff’s ad “This Is Why Things Don’t Work For Ordinary People”

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