Latest news with #MakeAmericaHealthyAgain
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Health
- Yahoo
What the new CDC director has said about vaccines, fluoride and more
The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday along party lines, 51 to 47, to confirm Susan Monarez as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Trump nominated her for the role in March, praising her as "an incredible mother and dedicated public servant" who "understands the importance of protecting our children, our communities, and our future." Monarez has been serving as the acting head of the CDC since January, and previously worked as the head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. She was viewed as somewhat surprising pick for the CDC role because unlike most recent CDC directors, she holds a Ph.D. but is not a medical doctor. The CDC said Monarez "brings decades of distinguished experience in health innovation, disaster preparedness, global health, and biosecurity" to the agency, and will help advance the "mission to Make America Healthy Again." At her confirmation hearing before the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) committee on July 9, Monarez garnered praise from the Republican chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy, who is a physician, for her commitment to rebuilding public trust in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Democrats on the committee grilled her about the impact of cuts in federal funding for health programs and medical research, and expressed concern about the CDC's role under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Monarez was questioned by committee members about a range of health topics. Here are some of those highlights. Monarez on vaccines Monarez faced a number of questions about vaccine recommendations. Kennedy has been a longtime vaccine critic who has pushed a discredited theory linking routine childhood shots to autism, but during her hearing, Monarez refuted that view and stated that she has "not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism." Amid a growing measles outbreak this year, Kennedy has acknowledged the vaccine's efficacy against the disease while still saying he supports individual choice. In a March interview with CBS News, Kennedy publicly encouraged people to get the measles vaccine. "If I'm confirmed as CDC director, I look forward to supporting the secretary with science and evidence, and making sure that I am giving him the best information possible," Monarez said at her confirmation hearing. "Measles is an important health threat and we have to make sure we are doing everything that we can to prevent and mitigate it." Monarez was also asked about the continued availability and affordability of vaccines if the CDC's vaccine advisory panel, made up of new RFK Jr. appointees, makes changes to recommendations. "Vaccines absolutely save lives, and if I'm confirmed as CDC director, I commit to making sure we continue to prioritize vaccine availability," she said. Monarez on fluoride Fluoride, another topic Kennedy has spotlighted, was also a subject of discussion during Monarez's hearing. This year, two states, Utah and Florida, became the first to ban the use of fluoride in drinking water, where it's been added for decades to help prevent tooth decay. "Fluoride is an important component to oral health, and there are various aspects of using fluoride to improve oral health — a direct application can be very valuable," Monarez said. Democratic Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland specifically asked Monarez whether the water in Potomac, Maryland, which has fluoridation, is safe for families. Monarez replied: "I believe the water in Potomac, Maryland is safe." Monarez on RFK Jr. and the measles outbreak Measles came up repeatedly as senators questioned Monarez about how she would interact with Kennedy in her role at the CDC. "The CDC director can't perform this critical role unless they are politically independent. Which means that you must be willing to disagree with political leaders based on scientific evidence," Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said. "So, is there anything that you disagree with Secretary Kennedy about?" "If I'm confirmed as CDC director, I look forward to having technical discussions with the secretary. He has said he values and prioritizes independent thinking and using science to drive decision making," Monarez replied. "I am an independent thinker, and I am a scientist, and I will welcome the opportunity to share my opinions based on science and evidence with him as he makes some of these very difficult decisions." After Monarez sidestepped a question from Hassan about whether she disagrees with anything Kennedy has done, the senator got more specific, asking about Kennedy's claim that it's "very difficult for measles to kill a healthy person." This year's measles outbreak, centered in West Texas, killed two children who doctors said did not have previous health conditions. Monarez replied that measles is an "important public health threat" that can be lethal. Forensics expert analysis of Jeffrey Epstein jail video contradicts government's claims Russia reacts to Trump's new deadline on Ukraine ceasefire Immigration agent told 18-year-old U.S. citizen "you got no rights here" during arrest
Gulf Today
2 hours ago
- Business
- Gulf Today
Why MAGA wants to make Mexican Coke in the US
Matthew Yglesias, Tribune News Service Coca-Cola is launching a new product in the US this fall featuring cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, and at least one restaurant chain is planning to offer sugar Coke as soon as next week. This news prompted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to post his reaction online: 'MAHA is winning.' This new Coke is highly unlikely to Make America Healthy Again. But it raises the question of how US soda manufacturers came to rely so heavily on the corn-based sweetener in the first place. The answer is protectionism, one of the main items on the Make America Great Again agenda. As it turns out, when you combine MAHA and MAGA, what you get is ... Mexican Coke. Because sugar-based Coca-Cola is already available in the US — it's just imported from Mexico and known colloquially as 'Mexican Coke.' The company does that because the US has extensive trade protections for American sugar growers, which pushes the domestic price of sugar in the US far above the world level. That means that it makes more economic sense to use corn-based sweeteners in US-based soda production while importing sugar soda from Mexico. Kennedy believes the ubiquity of high fructose corn syrup in the American diet has a significant deleterious impact on Americans' health. My more informed colleagues can adjudicate that claim, which I doubt. My concern is the distortionary impact of America's sugar policy on global trade flows and the allocation of natural resources. Turning corn into sugar is an inefficient process compared to turning sugar cane into sugar, so using HFCS is significantly more land-intensive than using regular sugar. Blocking sugar cane to promote HFCS therefore promotes global deforestation, on the margin, and raises the domestic price of food and land for Americans. In the grand scheme of things these are minor impacts — meat and especially cattle have by far the biggest land impacts of any economic sector — but they're something. The cornerstone of US. sugar policy is a system of tariff rate quotas. Under the so-called TRQ system a limited amount of sugar can be imported to the U.S. and lightly taxed. These quotas are set on both a national basis and for dozens of sugar-producing countries. Any sugar above the quota level is taxed at a rate of at least 15 cents per pound — and with the global price of sugar at only about 16 cents per pound, that's a huge tax. These TRQs, meanwhile, are only one part of a larger plan whose objective is to prevent domestic sugar prices from getting too low while providing guaranteed profits to domestic sugar farmers. Another aspect of it, for example, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's practice of giving guaranteed discounted loans to sugar producers, with sugar itself offered up as collateral. The USDA is then instructed to manage an Overall Allotment Quantity (OAQ) — basically a national sugar production target — designed to ensure that the collateral is good for the loans and avoid credit losses. The upshot of all this is a windfall for a tiny number of American sugar farmers; a modest boost for America's corn farmers; higher prices for American consumers; and economic losses for America's trading partners in Latin America. This set of policies dates to the 1980s and has nothing in particular to do with President Donald Trump. But it amounts to a real-world road test of some MAGAnomics principles, and underscores how self-defeating protectionism can be. It's not just that American sugar policy raises costs and thus lowers living standards for the majority of people. It's that it undermines US manufacturing, because sugar is used as an input for other processes. Yes, in a naive sense, blocking sugar imports would seem to improve the US balance of trade. But the actual impact is unknowable. If tropical sugar-producing countries were allowed to export more sugar, they would have higher incomes. Those incomes would be spent on things, likely including the kinds of things that the US exports — airplanes, turbines, medical devices, beef, and whatever else. There would be real losses for some Americans, specifically the ones who own sugar plantations, but it's fundamentally a negative sum bargain that hurts most people on both sides of the trading relationship. Meanwhile, bad as all this sugar protectionism is as overall economic policy, the relationship to public health is borderline nonexistent. Coke simply manufacturing a cane sugar soda to give Trump a propaganda win, for starters, isn't going to change consumer behaviour. Sodas sweetened with cane sugar are already widely available in the US, not only from competing brands but from Coca-Cola itself. They are less popular because they are more expensive. Even if consumers did switch, there is no real evidence that cane sugar is healthier than HFCS. Mexico, for example, where non-HFCS sodas are mainstream, has recently surpassed the US in its obesity rate. The reason HFCS is bad for you is not that it's worse for you than cane sugar — it's that the development of HFCS technology has made it cheaper to add sweetener to all kinds of things. And while most people like the sweet stuff, all this sweetened hyper-palatable food and drink encourages overconsumption.
The Hill
2 hours ago
- Health
- The Hill
White House launching new health data sharing initiative
The Trump administration on Wednesday said it has secured commitments from more than 60 health and information technology companies to participate in a plan to make Medicare patient data more accessible. Leaders from tech companies including Google, Amazon and OpenAI, along with providers and health systems including Cleveland Clinic and UnitedHealth Group, will meet with health officials at the White House later on Wednesday to 'begin laying the foundation for a next-generation digital health ecosystem,' the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a statement. The initiative builds on a May effort by CMS to solicit suggestions on ways to modernize the nation's digital health ecosystem, and the barriers to sharing patient information across different platforms. The idea is for a patient to upload data in the health app of their choice, where it can be easily managed and shared with their doctor. According to CMS, the initiative will focus on diabetes and obesity management, the use of conversational AI assistants to help patients, and digital tools like QR codes to 'kill the clipboard' and replace paper intake forms at check-in. Companies will commit to a voluntary framework around interoperability, which is how different health technology systems connect to one another and share data. CMS said the framework will allow medical information to be easily shared between patients and providers. 'We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience,' CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement. CMS said it also plans to add an app library to to help patients with chronic disease management and to more easily navigate cost-effective providers and insurance plans. The administration is seeking voluntary commitments from industry, including on security and privacy protections, rather than engage in rulemaking. It's a tactic HHS has touted with the food industry and insurers to secure wins as part of its 'Make America Healthy Again' agenda.
2 hours ago
- Health
Senate confirms Trump nominee Susan Monarez as CDC director. Here's what to know
The Senate confirmed Susan Monarez as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Monarez was confirmed by a vote of 51-47 along party lines on Tuesday evening. Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) were absent. She is the first CDC director nominee who required Senate confirmation after Congress passed a law requiring it in 2022. Monarez holds a PhD, but she is the first CDC director without a medical degree since 1953. In a post on X, the CDC wrote a congratulatory message to Monarez, saying that she "brings decades of distinguished experience in health innovation, disaster preparedness, global health, and biosecurity to [the CDC]." "Dr. Monarez will lead [the CDC's] efforts to prevent disease and respond to domestic and global health threats" and advancing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "mission to Make America Healthy Again." Here's what to know about Monarez: According to her biography on the CDC website, Monarez worked on initiatives including the ethical use of artificial intelligence, addressing disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality and improving the national organ donation and transplantation programs. Monarez also worked in the public sector under former presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as during Trump's first term. That work included strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance. Prior to the CDC, Monarez worked in the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, a federal research funding agency that focuses on biomedical and health breakthroughs. In January 2023, she was appointed deputy director of the agency, Monarez was named acting CDC director in January, stepping down after she was nominated for the permanent position in March. It came after President Donald Trump's first pick, Dr. David Weldon, had his nomination pulled by the White House due to a lack of votes. Weldon was expected to be grilled on his past comments questioning vaccine safety, such as falsely suggesting vaccines are linked to autism. During her confirmation hearing last month, Monarez expressed support for vaccines, in contrast with Kennedy, who has expressed some skepticism. When questioned on the discredited theory that childhood vaccinations are linked to autism, Monarez stated that she has "not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism." In a statement, Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC, responded to Monarez's confirmation, expressing concern over "attacks" on the agency from the administration. "These attacks have already had major consequences, from exacerbating the worst outbreak of measles to hit our country in a generation to cutting billions of dollars in funding to state and local health departments," he said in a statement. Besser noted that Monarez "must fight" for the CDC, in addition to leading it. "Our nation's entire public health system depends on CDC having the tools it needs to respond to pandemics, reduce chronic disease, and address health inequities that continue to leave too many communities behind," the statement continued. "That starts with a director willing to speak the truth, defend science, and stand up for the health of every American."
UPI
4 hours ago
- Health
- UPI
FDA chief scientific officer Vinay Prasad resigns
Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Mehmet Oz (L) and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Martin Makary (R) look on as President Donald Trump before signing an executive order aiming to lower the cost of prescription drugs in Washington, D.C., on May 12. Dr. Vinay Prasad, the chief scientific officer at the Food and Drug Administration, has resigned after only three months in the position. File photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo July 30 (UPI) -- Dr. Vinay Prasad, the chief scientific officer at the Food and Drug Administration, has resigned after only three months in the position. "Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family," a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. "We thank him for his service and the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at FDA." The spokesperson didn't say who would replace Prasad. They also didn't give a reason for the resignation. Prasad had served as director of the FDA's director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. He replaced Dr. Peter Marks who was forced out by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Prasad faced mounting criticism from right-wing activist Laura Loomer and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "Far from being the reformist ally the Trump administration expected he may be, Prasad's liberal ideology, outspoken anti-Trump rhetoric, and deliberate actions to obstruct the President's deregulatory agenda make him a dangerous misfit in this critical position," Loomer wrote on her website. On social media and on her website, she's called him a "saboteur" and "trojan horse" of the administration's "Make America Healthy Again" initiative. Loomer focused on his past support for Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders. Loomer called Prasad a "Lifelong Progressive with a Vicious Anti-Trump Record" and wrote that "Prasad's views are a slap in the face to the conservative values of limited government, deregulation, and economic freedom that YOU voted for!" In a Politico published last weekend, FDA chief Marty Markay defended Prasad. "There's not a political bone to his body," Makary said. "He's an impeccable scientist, I think one of the greatest minds of our generation." Another issue is a regulatory dispute with Sarepta Therapeutics, which manufactures a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The agency forced Sarepta to stop all shipments and stop clinical trials after two people who received the drug died. FDA released records earlier this month that showed Prasad overrode career staff to limit approvals of COVID-19 shots from Novavax and Moderna.
