The Host
Mary Agnes Carey
KFF Health News
@maryagnescarey
Mary Agnes Carey is managing editor of KFF Health News. She previously served as the director of news partnerships, overseeing placement of KFF Health News content in publications nationwide. As a senior correspondent, Mary Agnes covered health reform and federal health policy.
President Donald Trump this week nominated a former deputy surgeon general who has expressed support for vaccines to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Considered a more traditional fit for the job, Erica Schwartz would be the agency’s fourth leader in roughly a year, should she be confirmed by the Senate.
And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on Capitol Hill this week in the first of several hearings discussing Trump’s budget request for the department. But the topics up for discussion deviated quite a bit from the subject of federal funding, with lawmakers raising issues of Medicaid fraud, measles outbreaks, the hepatitis B vaccine, peptides, unaccompanied minors, and much, much more.
This week’s panelists are Mary Agnes Carey of KFF Health News, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Emmarie Huetteman of KFF Health News, and Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine.
Panelists
Anna Edney
Bloomberg News
@annaedney
@annaedney.bsky.social
Read Anna’s stories.
Emmarie Huetteman
KFF Health News
Joanne Kenen
Johns Hopkins University and Politico
@JoanneKenen
@joannekenen.bsky.social
Read Joanne’s bio.
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Trump on Thursday named four officials to the CDC’s leadership team. Schwartz, whom he picked as director, is a physician and Navy officer who served as a deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term. She has voiced support for vaccines and played a key role in the covid-19 pandemic response.
RFK Jr. testified before three committees of the House of Representatives this week on the president’s budget request for HHS. While the hearings touched on a wide variety of topics, notable moments included a slight softening of Kennedy’s stance on the measles vaccine, including the acknowledgment that being immunized is safer than having measles — although he also stood by the decision to remove the recommendation for the newborn dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
New studies on the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy and the effects of water fluoridation on cognitive function refute Trump administration claims. And a White House meeting that brought together Trump, Kennedy, and other leaders of the Make America Healthy Again movement aimed to so