\tJulie Rovner
\n\tKFF Health News<\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\t \t\t\tJulie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News\u2019 weekly health policy news podcast, \u201cWhat the Health?\u201d A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book \u201cHealth Care Politics and Policy A to Z,\u201d now in its third edition.\t\t<\/p>\n A week into the reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services announced by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the scope of the staff cuts and program cutbacks is starting to become clear. Among the biggest targets for reductions were the nation\u2019s premier public health agencies: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the FDA.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Kennedy did not show up as invited to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, known as HELP, but he did visit families in Texas whose unvaccinated children died of measles in the current outbreak and called for an end to water fluoridation during a stop in Utah.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Victoria Knight of Axios, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call.<\/p>\n \tVictoria Knight \t\t\t \t\t\t \tAlice Miranda Ollstein \t\t\t \t\t\t \tSandhya Raman \t\t\t \t\t\t Among the takeaways from this week\u2019s episode:<\/p>\n Amid a dearth of public information about federal health cutbacks, HHS employees currently on administrative leave report they were given no opportunity to hand off their responsibilities, suggesting important work will simply be discontinued. Critical staff members have been cut from the FDA offices funded by user fees, for instance \u2014 affecting the drugmakers that pay the fees in exchange for timely evaluation of their products, as well as the patients hoping for access to those drugs. Even if the cuts were reversed, the damage could linger, especially in areas where there will be gaps in data such as disease surveillance.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the temporary public communications freeze implemented in the Trump administration\u2019s early days apparently has not ended. State officials, desperate for information from federal health officials about ongoing programs, are receiving no response as they seek guidance from offices in which most or all staffers were laid off.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump issued an executive order this week that instructs federal department heads to summarily repeal any regulation they deem \u201cunlawful.\u201d The order threatens to effectively short-circuit the federal regulatory process, which involves public notices and opportunities to comment. Businesses rely on that process to make decisions, and Trump\u2019s order could create further instability for health care and other industries.<\/p>\n And Kennedy traveled West this week, using his public appearances to call for removing fluoride from the water supply and to discuss the measles outbreak. He issued his strongest endorsement of the measles vaccine yet, but he also praised doctors who have used alternative and unapproved remedies to treat measles patients. Senators had called him to testify before Congress this week about the ongoing upheaval at HHS, but the hearing was canceled.<\/p>\n Legislators in a growing number of states are introducing abortion bans that would punish women seeking abortions as well as abortion providers, suggesting a long game for abortion opponents that goes well beyond overturning a nationwide right to the procedure.<\/p>\n Also this week, Rovner interviews Georgetown Law School professor Stephen Vladeck about the limits of presidential power.<\/p>\n Plus, for \u201cextra credit\u201d the panelists suggest health policy stories they read (or wrote) this week that they think you should read, too:\u00a0<\/p>\n Julie Rovner:<\/strong> The New York Times\u2019 \u201cWhy the Right Still Embraces Ivermectin<\/a>,\u201d by Richard Fausset.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Victoria Knight:<\/strong> Wired\u2019s \u201cDr. Oz Pushed for AI Health Care in First Medicare Agency Town Hall<\/a>,\u201d by Leah Feiger and Steven Levy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Alice Miranda Ollstein:<\/strong> The Guardian\u2019s \u201c\u2018We Are Failing\u2019: Doctors and Students in the US Look to Mexico for Basic Abortion Training<\/a>,\u201d by Carter Sherman.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sandhya Raman:<\/strong> CQ Roll Call\u2019s \u201cIn Sweden, a Focus on Smokeless Tobacco<\/a>,\u201d by Sandhya Raman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Also mentioned in this week\u2019s podcast:<\/p>\n The New York Times\u2019 \u201cThe Three States That Are Especially Stuck if Congress Cuts Medicaid<\/a>,\u201d by Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz.<\/p>\n The AP\u2019s \u201cEx-Official Says He Was Forced out of FDA After Trying To Protect Vaccine Safety Data From RFK Jr.<\/a>,\u201d by Matthew Perrone.<\/p>\n \tFrancis Ying \tEmmarie Huetteman To hear all our podcasts,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n And subscribe to KFF Health News\u2019 \u201cWhat the Health?\u201d on\u00a0Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Apple Podcasts<\/a>,\u00a0Pocket Casts<\/a>, or wherever you listen to podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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