2024-11-23 19:58:00
The team President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to lead federal health agencies in his second term includes a retired congressman, a surgeon general and a former talk show host.
All have a key role to play in executing a policy agenda that could transform the way government protects Americans’ health, from health care and drugs to food safety and scientific research. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer, serves as secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump’s picks have no experience running large bureaucracies, but they know how to talk about health issues on television. Dr. Mehmet Oz, selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, has hosted talk shows for 13 years and is a health and lifestyle influencer. Dr. Marty Makary was selected to head the Food and Drug Administration and Dr. Marty Makary, the state surgeon general, was selected to serve as state surgeon general. Janette Nesheiwat is a frequent contributor to Fox News.
Many on the list are critical of COVID-19 measures such as mask-wearing and booster shots for teenagers. Some have ties to Florida, like many other Trump Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon, a CDC nominee who represented the state in Congress for 14 years, is affiliated with the Atlantic Medical organizations along the coast. Neshevat’s brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz, whom Trump appointed as national security adviser.
Here’s a look at the nominees’ potential roles in carrying out what Kennedy called a “reorganization” of the agency’s mission, which has a combined budget of $1.7 billion and employs 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials who impact people’s daily lives. .
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Headquartered in Atlanta, with a core budget of $9.2 billion, CDC is responsible for protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats.
Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly accusing the agency of corruption. He said in a 2023 podcast that “there is no safe and effective vaccine” and encouraged people to resist CDC guidelines on whether and when children should be vaccinated.
Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon, 71, who served in the Army as a physician before representing Central Florida’s congressional district from 1995 to 2009.
In the early 2000s, Weldon played an important role in the debate over whether there was a link between the thimerosal vaccine preservative and autism. He is a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and has sought to ban the use of thimerosal in all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, argued there was a link between thimerosal and autism and accused the government of withholding documents showing the danger.
Since 2001, all vaccines produced for the U.S. market and generally recommended for children 6 years of age and younger contain no or only trace amounts of thimerosal, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study has found no evidence that thimerosal causes autism.
Weldon’s voting record in Congress suggests he could work with Republicans to reduce the size of the CDC, including eliminating the National Centers for Injury Prevention and Control, which addresses drownings, overdoses and drug deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle exchange programs as a way to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” for his pro-gun rights voting record.
Food and Drug Administration
Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products, as well as overseeing cosmetics, e-cigarettes and most food products.
Macari, Trump’s choice to lead the FDA, aligned closely with Kennedy on several issues. The Johns Hopkins University professor, a trained surgeon and cancer expert, decried the overprescription of drugs, the use of pesticides in food and the undue influence of pharmaceuticals and insurance companies on doctors and government regulators .
Kennedy said he would clean out “the entire department” at the FDA and recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “actively suppressing” a range of unproven products and treatments, including stem cells, raw milk, hallucinogens and credibility Poor treatment.
Makary’s objections during the COVID-19 pandemic include questioning the need to wear masks and providing COVID-19 vaccine boosters to young children.
But anything Macari and Kennedy do to roll back FDA regulations or revoke approvals of vaccines and long-acting drugs will be a challenge. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing drugs from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
The agency provides health insurance to more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and sets health insurance payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 billion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Olds, if confirmed, would oversee a massive agency about which Kennedy has not revealed much in his plans.
While Trump tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act during his first term, Kennedy has not yet taken aim at it. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs, even though neither drug is widely covered.
Trump said during the campaign that he would protect Medicare, which insures older Americans. Oz supported expanding Medicare Advantage (a private version of Medicare that is popular but also widely fraudulent) in an AARP questionnaire during the 2022 Senate campaign and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with the former CEO of Kaiser Permanente root).
Oz, who also wrote an op-ed in The Washington Examiner with three co-authors, said healthier aging and longer lifespans could help address budget deficits as people work longer hours and pay for Gross domestic product increased even more.
Neither Trump nor Kennedy have talked much about Medicaid, a program for low-income Americans. The first Trump administration reshaped the program by allowing states to impose work requirements on recipients.
state health director
Kennedy doesn’t appear to be overtly over-expressing what he wants to see from the position of state surgeon general.
The state surgeon general has little executive power but can be an influential government spokesperson, advising on what constitutes a public health hazard and how to respond, making recommendations such as product warning labels and publication recommendations. Current Commissioner Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis in June.
Nesheiwat, Trump’s pick, is the medical director of CityMD New York, a group of urgent care facilities in New York and New Jersey, and has worked at City MD for 12 years. She has also appeared on Fox News and other television shows, written a book about the “transformative power of prayer” during her medical career, and endorsed a vitamin supplement brand.
She encouraged the use of COVID-19 vaccines, calling them a “gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News column, as well as antiviral drugs like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women’s Medical Heritage Foundation, Neshevat said she was a “strong believer in preventive medicine” and “could give a lecture on handwashing alone.”
National Institutes of Health
As of Saturday, Trump had not nominated someone to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research by providing grants to researchers across the country and conducts its own research. Its budget is $48 billion.
Kennedy said he would pause drug development and infectious disease research and shift his focus to chronic diseases. He wants to keep researchers with conflicts of interest away from NIH funding and criticized the agency in 2017 for not doing enough research on the role of vaccines in autism, an idea that has long been questioned.
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Reporters Amanda Seitz, Matt Perrone and Erica Hunzinger contributed to this article.
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AP health and science reporting receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Associated Press is solely responsible for its content.
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This story was translated from English by AP editors with the help of generated artificial intelligence tools.
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What are Dr. Mehmet Oz’s primary goals as the new leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Trump administration?
### Interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz on Health Policy Changes in the Trump Administration
**Interviewer:** Welcome, Dr. Oz! Thank you for joining us today to discuss the newly appointed health officials in President Trump’s second-term cabinet and their potential impact on American health policy.
**Dr. Oz:** Thank you for having me! It’s a pleasure to be here.
**Interviewer:** You’ve been selected to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. What are your main priorities as you step into this role?
**Dr. Oz:** My focus will be on improving healthcare access for seniors and low-income Americans. We need to ensure that both Medicare and Medicaid are sustainable and serve those in need effectively. I’m especially interested in examining how we can leverage healthcare innovation to provide better outcomes for patients without compromising quality.
**Interviewer:** Speaking of innovation, there has been some criticism around the coverage of expensive weight-loss drugs under Medicaid and Medicare. How do you plan to address that?
**Dr. Oz:** It’s a nuanced issue. While I understand the importance of supporting health weight management, we must also be fiscally responsible. I aim to gather data on the efficacy of these drugs and evaluate whether they provide sufficient value before expanding coverage.
**Interviewer:** The Affordable Care Act has been a significant talking point in the past. Are there any plans to revisit or alter this legislation under the current administration?
**Dr. Oz:** While the Affordable Care Act has been a contentious issue, my first priority is to ensure that it remains accessible and effective for those who rely on it. Of course, we’ll need to assess its impact critically, but any changes will be approached cautiously and with substantial input from various stakeholders.
**Interviewer:** Undersecretary Kennedy has made some noteworthy remarks regarding public health initiatives, including vaccination policies. How will your department align with his vision?
**Dr. Oz:** Public health is a collective responsibility. While we may have differing views on certain topics, I believe in a balanced approach that respects scientific evidence while also considering public sentiment. We’ll focus on clear communication and transparency when it comes to vaccines and other public health issues.
**Interviewer:** what challenges do you foresee in your new role, especially with the changing landscape of healthcare in America?
**Dr. Oz:** The primary challenge will be addressing the regulatory environment and navigating the complexities of federal programs while ensuring that we maintain trust with the public. Increasing efficiency, tackling fraud, and improving patient care will be at the forefront of my focus.
**Interviewer:** Thank you, Dr. Oz, for sharing your insights. We look forward to seeing how your leadership will shape healthcare in the coming years.
**Dr. Oz:** Thank you! I’m excited about what’s ahead and appreciate the opportunity to discuss these critical issues.
