Yesterday, the always incisive and engaging Jessica Yellin and I caught up on Substack Live to review the incredible amount of public health news from just the first 100 days of the Trump administration. So much has happened in a short time, and it is so important that we stay on top of this!
We spoke about the attacks on the CDC; the status of frozen or canceled research at NIH; and general disarray at FDA. We also covered what HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. intends with a promised study on the root causes of autism; whether or not he’s canceled the largest women’s health research project to date; what’s going on with the red dye bad; the impact of withdrawing from the World Health Organization; the destruction of USAID, and more.
Also, we discussed the likelihood that Congress will vote to dramatically cut Medicaid funding and we discussed the impact that would have on communities across the nation. We discussed what we all can do to protect ourselves now. Spoiler Alert: call your members of Congress and urge them not to vote for deep cuts at our health agencies. This is so important because the next phase of the administration’s plan to cut back on important government services that have kept us safe and made our research the envy of the world is about the federal budget. In other words, major budget cuts to the CDC, NIH, FDA, and other agencies would be the “legal” version of what DOGE has been trying to do since January, if Congress votes for this.
Our 55-minute session was full of content and you won’t want to miss this one. You’ll pick up lots of specifics (you know I love data), but Jessica made sure we kept the big picture in mind. What I enjoy about working with Jessica is that we do some planning so we are sure to hit the big topics—but she keeps the conversation focused, efficient, and on track. These are always valuable sessions, and this one felt particularly important.
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Closed captions (㏄) and a transcript option (📄) can be found beneath the video playback control bar above.
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