Episode #58 Deep Dive – Milkmaxxing and The Resurgence of Preventable Diseases in America
A deep dive into this week's episode of Paging America
››› With the decline of vaccinations, hospitals see diseases resurging
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: 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.