Welcome to Public Health Watch, a weekly newsletter from Protect Our Care tracking catastrophic activity as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping assault on health care.
What’s Happening In Public Health?
The state of America’s public health is worse for wear in recent days after a series of reckless and counterproductive attacks from the Trump administration. On Friday, we saw HHS Sec. Kennedy’s hand-picked squad of quacks and anti-science activists on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) vote to effectively “end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children.” The scientifically unfounded recommendation to the CDC has been a priority of pseudo-science embracer Kennedy and was celebrated by Donald Trump, even as it was sharply rebuked by major health organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), for putting children’s lives at risk. Trump was so pleased that he even “directed” Kennedy to “fast track” further rollbacks of decades-long, data-backed guidance for newborn vaccinations that have proven effective, prevented heinous diseases, and saved countless lives. While Trump touts his administration’s dangerous anti-vax policies, don’t expect him to take any responsibility when the tragic consequences mount.
Meanwhile, chaos and incompetence continue to be a theme out of the FDA – overseen by RFK Jr’s HHS – after a number of high-profile resignations that experts warn threaten drug development, food and vaccine safety, and public trust. This instability comes amid sweeping new cuts to scientific research and public health funding during Trump’s second term, with agencies like the NIH, CDC, and NSF facing historically deep budget reductions. Experts argue that these funding slashes, combined with anti-science leadership and chaotic policymaking, risk reversing decades of progress in disease prevention and cures and weakening America’s preparedness for the next public health crisis.
None of this will likely help the fact that most American people believe Trump and RFK Jr. have made the nation less healthy, by a 2-to-1 margin. And rather than reflect on why that is and right the ship, this week Kennedy instead doubled down on his fringe pet project of fear-mongering and confusing families, by shaming the majority of mothers who use baby formula, and spearheading further scrutiny of safe and effective therapies like those intended to prevent RSV and COVID infections in young children, at the urging of anti-vaccine advocates.
In The News
Chaos at HHS: In an especially chaotic week for the Trump administration’s public health agenda, we’ve seen an unprecedented wave of resignations from the FDA and backlash to the anti-vaccine movement on display at the CDC’s ACIP meeting. More on the chaos:
- New York Times: The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine
- New York Magazine: Doughnuts and Bullets: The agony and absurdity of working for RFK Jr.
- The Handbasket: RFK Jr. is very worried about anti-Christian bias at HHS…under Biden
- Politico: The FDA’s top drug regulator submits his resignation to the agency
- Axios: FDA reaches “tipping point” after high-level departures
- Axios: Scoop: Kennedy gets personally involved in FDA personnel drama
- NPR: HHS changed the name of transgender health leader on her official portrait
- Washington Post: FDA instability, alarm over agency’s direction escalate after top regulator exits
The GOP War on Vaccines Will Have Deadly Consequences: The Trump administration is casting aside decades of peer-reviewed research that shows there’s virtually no adverse effects to vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B – a preventive treatment that has resulted in an astounding 99% drop in hepatitis B infections among infants and children. Given the horrific reality that one in four children who develop chronic hepatitis B die as a result, the administration’s major reversal on hep B vaccine support is one of the worst public health setbacks in recent history. More on the GOP war on vaccines:
- Politico: Trump asks RFK Jr. to ‘fast track’ vaccine schedule review
- Washington Post: Under RFK Jr., the CDC provides a megaphone to the anti-vaccine movement
- Stat: In sweeping presentation, vaccine critic set to urge government advisers to rethink childhood shots
- Wall Street Journal: Skeptics in the Spotlight: Takeaways From RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Panel
- Washington Post: Trump orders review of childhood vaccine schedule, calls U.S. an ‘outlier’
- Stat: As vaccine panel prepares hepatitis B review, CDC and industry experts are excluded
- Stat: Chairman of vaccine committee leaves for new HHS job
- New York Times: Inside Kennedy’s Methodical Quest to Shake Up America’s Vaccine System
- Politico: RFK Jr. ally, anti-vaccine lawyer to brief CDC vaccine meeting
- Washington Post: A dozen former FDA commissioners condemn plan to tighten vaccine approvals
- Axios: MAHA world is thrilled with RFK Jr.’s latest vaccine changes
- The Bulwark: This Is What It Looks Like When RFK Jr. Wins
- End Points: FDA says it won’t release details of claimed Covid vaccine deaths in ‘near term’
- End Points: Prasad’s claim of 10 Covid vaccine deaths may be an overcount, FDA sources say
Public Health Cuts: At the Trump administration’s insistence, federal funding for scientific research has fallen to its lowest levels in decades—drastically reducing grant support across nearly all fields—which not only jeopardizes America’s innovation to solve public health concerns, but risks long-term economic harm, talent loss, and diminished global leadership in science and technology. More on the threats to public health research here:
- Forbes: Under RFK Jr., Vaccine Development Is Facing Unprecedented Challenges
- NPR: After NIH grant cuts, breast cancer research at Harvard slowed, and lab workers left
- Stat: NIH shut out hundreds of young scientists from funding to start their own labs
More Key Headlines:
- Wall Street Journal: How RFK Jr.’s Vaccine Policy Put a Doctor-Turned-Senator in a Political Bind
- USA Today: It’s not just vaccines. How RFK Jr. is reshaping public health messaging
- Mother Jones: RFK Jr. Blames Pills—Not Guns—for School Shootings
- The Guardian: ‘It becomes my whole job’: autism advocates fight RFK Jr’s barrage of misinformation
- New York Times: MAHA Activists Urge Trump to Fire His E.P.A. Administrator
- Axios: MAHA group begins state election endorsements
- Bloomberg: FDA Slow Walking a Long-Awaited Abortion Pill Safety Study
- Politico: CDC vaccine panel chair compares team to ‘puppets on a string’
- Washington Post: Illinois can set its own vaccine guidelines, bypassing Trump administration
- Axios: Vaccine divide helps Trump overturn accepted policies
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