Trump Further Politicizes Science – KFF Health News

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A new executive order from President Donald Trump has potentially broad implications for the future of the federal research enterprise by transferring direct funding decisions away from career professionals to political appointees.

And a gunman, reportedly disgruntled over covid vaccines, attacked the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, highlighting how increasingly inflammatory rhetoric from health critics endangers the public health workforce.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Trump’s executive order highlights the tension between how Congress has directed federal science funding and what the administration can do to alter that course. Congress has traditionally set the parameters and experts have made the judgments for moving forward. The National Institutes of Health, considered an American crown jewel, specifically has remained apolitical. But this step opens the door to concerns about grant cancellation and adds to growing uncertainty in scientific research. Even investors are starting to hold back. The ripple effects could be much bigger than the Trump administration anticipates.
• Many CDC staffers blame Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other agency leaders for stoking the negative climate that led to last week’s attack. Kennedy appears to have doubled down on his language, however, announcing decisions and policies that continue to fuel vaccine opposition and hesitation.
• This week, Kennedy also made the unprecedented move of calling on the Annals of Internal Medicine, a medical journal, to retract a study that found that the aluminum adjuvant in many childhood vaccines did not cause harm. The journal refused to retract the study based on Kennedy’s scientifically unsubstantiated claims that the additive was damaging.
• More fallout is emerging about the GOP-backed sweeping budget law enacted this summer. Republicans have argued that its cuts to Medicaid — most of which will not kick in until after the midterm elections — would touch only waste, fraud, abuse, and people who weren’t entitled to the coverage. In reality, the sprawling nature of Medicaid is already becoming clear as institutions — ranging from hospitals to community health centers — prepare for cuts that could limit their ability to provide services.
• The CDC reported this week that Americans are eating less ultra-processed food but that it is still a big part of the American diet. The Trump administration has talked a big game about addressing this public health issue yet has seemed loath to require the food industry to do anything. Much of the administration’s efforts have focused on “voluntary” changes. Former FDA chief David Kessler this week highlighted a regulatory, legal way the administration could compel more action.

Also this week, Rovner interviews Aaron Carroll, president and CEO of the health services research group AcademyHealth, about how to restore the public’s trust in public health.

Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: ProPublica’s “Veterans’ Care at Risk Under Trump as Hundreds of Doctors and Nurses Reject Working at VA Hospitals,” by David Armstrong, Eric Umansky, and Vernal Coleman.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times-KFF Health News’ “Why Young Americans Dread Turning 26: Health Insurance Chaos,” by Elisabeth Rosenthal and Hannah Norman.

Sarah Karlin-Smith: The New York Times’ “This Ohio Farm Community Is a Mecca for the ‘MAHA Mom,’” by Caroline Kitchener.

Shefali Luthra: Stat’s “Inside the American Medical Association’s Sudden Strategy Shift in Washington,” by Theresa Gaffney.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

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