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The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. 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, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.‘Baby Driver’ Star Remembered at Memorial Service After Death at 16
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Billed as “the year of democracy,” 2024 may ultimately be remembered as the year voters sent incumbents packing. The largest-ever single year of elections was also the worst-ever year for those in office. Every governing party facing election in a developed country this year lost vote share – the first time this has happened since records began – according to an analysis by the Financial Times . Incumbency advantage used to be an iron law of politics. Recently, “better the devil you know” has given way to “throw the rascals out.” Voters’ instincts have been to twist, not stick. In the United States, Kamala Harris appeared to pay a price for her unwillingness to distance herself from incumbent President Joe Biden’s policies, to Donald Trump’s gain. What might 2025 bring for incumbents and what factors are at play? For decades in wealthy democracies, the surest way to win office was already to hold it. Incumbents were a protected class. Power would switch hands between a small number of mainstream parties, mostly after long periods of relative stability. In emerging, poorer democracies, things were more volatile. Mainstream parties were weaker, facing constant challenges from upstart insurgents, so power changed hands more often. But this distinction between richer and poorer democracies has blurred. Wealthy democracies have become more volatile, said Ben Ansell, a professor of comparative democratic institutions at the University of Oxford. “What’s happened in wealthy democracies (is that) they’ve become like Latin American democracies or like India (used to be). Now it hurts to be an incumbent. That’s quite new,” Ansell told CNN. It’s the inflation, stupid Why was 2024 so difficult for incumbents? Post-mortems have found a common cause of death: inflation. Prices jumped in many countries after the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Driven by a range of factors, including supply disruptions and a rebound in demand, global inflation reached its highest level since the 1990s in 2022. Voters hated it. Even if most of the causes were global, the governments that presided over soaring costs ultimately paid the price. Perhaps governments had forgotten just how much voters detest inflation. During and after the last big global shock, the 2008 financial crisis, inflation remained relatively low, despite years of huge government stimulus. Although unemployment soared in the United States and Europe after 2008, inflation was largely stable. The economic pain was more intense for some but was less diffuse. “Inflation hurts everybody less than unemployment, but it’s so widespread,” said Ansell. As the economist Isabella Weber recalled in the New York Times: “Unemployment weakens governments. Inflation kills them.” Perhaps lessons can be learned from Mexico, which elected Claudia Sheinbaum from the governing Morena party, a rare bright spot for incumbents in Latin America amid a long run of defeats. To stem inflation, her party introduced price controls to cap the price of basic groceries in 2022 and renewed the measure last month. Although mainstream economists are uneasy about price controls, Weber, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, points out Western countries have already implemented a global price cap on Russian oil. In the face of overlapping crises, perhaps this taboo will crumble. If inflation really was the culprit, this may be good news for tomorrow’s incumbents. Once prices stabilize, wages catch up and voters get used to the new cost of eggs , those in office – barring more price shocks – ought to have an easier time in the years to come. At least, that’s the theory. Shopping around But it’s not the only theory. The defeat or retreat of incumbents across the globe cannot be explained by materialist factors alone. Cultural, structural forces are also at play, which may be making volatility the rule, not the exception. “There’s a generational trend in a lot of democracies, towards much lower partisan loyalty. There’s much higher vote switching between elections and back again,” Roberto Foa, co-director of the Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge, told CNN. This erosion of partisan loyalty has opened the field to new actors who scorn the old rules of the game and chip away at its norms. Vicente Valentim, an assistant professor at the European University Institute in Florence, said this happens at both the policy level, such as the backlash against immigration and gender equality, and the procedural, such as refusing to concede an election or casting doubt on the integrity of a vote. Once this genie is out of its lamp, it is “really hard to reverse-track the process of normalization of these previously stigmatized views,” Valentim told CNN. “There’s no incentive for politicians to stop doing it once they see that it works.” If supply is changing, so is demand. One explanation for rising volatility is that voters have become more like consumers: hard to satisfy, hungry for gratification, always shopping around. Perhaps one can map changing voter habits onto changing consumer habits. Rather than going to a small selection of bricks-and-mortar stores to buy a fixed selection of goods, many in wealthy democracies have become used to being brought what they want when they want. Amazon and Netflix spoil their customers with choice; voters might expect democracies to catch up. Having to “choose between the two stores that have always been on the street” – one left, one right – “seems quite mid-20th century in an early 21st century world that we’re used to in every other way,” said Ansell. On the horizon A brief survey of upcoming elections suggests 2025 may be equally hard for incumbents in democracies. After failing to hold his coalition together for a full term, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is almost certain to be ousted in February’s snap election, called after he lost a confidence vote this month. Canadian voters are also likely to end Justin Trudeau’s near-decade-long premiership. The election must be held on or before October 20, but could be brought forward if his coalition also falls apart. Opinion polls suggest center-left Trudeau may be replaced by the conservative firebrand Pierre Poilievre. A similar story is expected to play out in Australia, where the Labor Party’s Anthony Albanese faces a fierce challenge from the Liberals’ Peter Dutton. In Europe, next year’s picture is somewhat skewed, as Kremlin-linked propaganda campaigns seek to boost the chances of candidates friendlier to Moscow. Despite what many in the West see as an impressive first term as president, Moldova’s Maia Sandu won reelection by the thinnest of margins in October. Whether her pro-Western party can keep its majority in parliamentary elections in May is less clear. The Kremlin has officially denied accusations by Moldova that it orchestrated and funded a widespread interference campaign this year. Romania will also have to decide how to proceed after its top court annulled the first round of its presidential election, which it said was marred by Russian interference. A victory for far-right ultranationalist candidate Calin Georgescu – a virtual unknown before the fall – is still on the cards when a new election is held. Russia has denied interfering in the electoral process. Things may be different in Latin America. Opinion polls indicate Daniel Noboa is better placed than most incumbents to win a second term when Ecuador votes in February, but blackouts and street violence have bolstered his main challenger, Luisa Gonzalez. And while Xiomara Castro – Honduras’ first female president – may win again in November, observers warn she is showing authoritarian tendencies. And so, 2025 may look like a slimmed-down version of 2024, with fewer elections but incumbents continuing to struggle. A charitable reading would say this is no bad thing. If voters are unhappy with their leaders, they should boot them out. Adam Przeworski, a political scientist, once defined democracy as “a system in which parties lose elections.” (This won’t apply in Belarus next month, however, where Alexander Lukashenko - president since 1994 - will be confident of winning another four-year term. Votes in Belarus are widely seen as neither free nor fair.) But interminable defeats – like Lukashenko’s interminable victories – should set alarm bells ringing. Elections send signals to governments, said Ansell. “You need to be able to punish people, but you also need to be able to reward them.” If elections become all stick and no carrot, the process risks descending into sound and fury, to the detriment of both politicians and voters.CLEVELAND, Ohio — There hasn’t been a whole lot of movement on the free agent market as teams continue to court outfielder Juan Soto, who helped end the Guardians season as a member of the Yankees. Soto has reportedly met with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox and Blue Jays to discuss what is expected to be a record-setting contract for a position player. There is speculation that Soto could sign before or at the winter meetings which begin Dec. 8 in Dallas. More Guardians coverage Will Guardians find another diamond in the rough this winter? Hey, Hoynsie! After 41 years covering baseball, Paul Hoynes is knocking on the Hall of Fame’s door – Terry Pluto Guardians announce promotions, hirings in player development department for 2025 Who are The 40 Most Influential People in Cleveland Sports when it comes to fan happiness? See our list and how we ranked them. What movement has taken place so far has involved some big-ticket left-handers in Blake Snell and Yusei Kikuchi. Snell (5-3, 3.12, 25 starts) has agreed to terms with the Dodgers on a five-year $182 million deal. Kikuchi (9-10, 4.05, 32 starts) has come to terms with the Angels on a three-year $63 million deal. Last season Snell signed with the Giants in late March and had to re-do spring training, which led to an erratic year. He was not going to make the same mistake this year. Kikuchi started the year with Toronto before being traded to Houston, where he pumped some life into what remained of his season. There are four other free agent left-handers who are drawing considerable interest — Max Fried, Tanner Scott, Sean Manaea and Matthew Boyd. Fried (11-10, 3.25, 29 starts, 174 1/3 innings), Manaea (12-6, 3.47, 32 starts, 181 2/3 innings) and Boyd (2-2, 2.72, eight starts, 39 2/3 innings) are starters. Fried has spent his whole career with Atlanta. Manaea is coming off a career year with the Mets. Boyd, recovering from Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, didn’t sign with the Guardians until June 29. He pitched well after five rehab appearances and carried that into the postseason where he allowed one run in 11 2/3 innings over in three starts. Scott is the only reliever among the four. He started the year as Miami’s closer before being traded to San Diego. In 72 appearances, he went 9-6 with a 1.75 ERA and 22 saves. The Guardians have three free agent starters in Boyd, Alex Cobb and Shane Bieber. Manager Stephen Vogt, in the team’s end-of-the-season press conference, said they talked to all three about returning. He said they all expressed an interest in doing so. Bieber is coming off Tommy John surgery and will probably still be rehabbing in the early part of the 2025 season. Cobb is 37 and was hounded by an array of injuries during the year. Boyd, of the three, seemed to be in the best spot to help the Guardians’ shaky rotation in 2025. Boyd is 33 and has been through his share of injuries. The question facing the Guardians is how hard do they push to bring him back? Boyd is said to be drawing plenty of interest on the open market. Plus he’s not positioned to put dent a team’s payroll like Fried or Manaea because his innings were limited because of his injury. The Guardians won the AL Central this year despite fielding one of their weakest rotations in years. They need stablility and outside of Tanner Bibee and durable Ben Lively, it’s hard to see where they’re going to get it with so many questions surrounding the health of Triston McKenzie and Gavin Williams, the inexperience of Joey Cantillo and Logan Allen’s ability to be effective for 30 starts. There is still plenty of time to address the issue, but it’s something that needs attention. Names to remember Right-hander Connor Gillispie , recently non-tendered by the Guardians, has signed a one-year big-league deal with the Braves. Gillispie made his big league debut last season with Cleveland. He posted a 2.25 ERA in eight innings with the Guards. At Class AAA Columbus, he struck out 119 and walked 48 in 113 1/3 innings. Deyvision De Los Santos , who went to spring training with the Guardians as a Rule 5 pick, has been added to Miami’s 40-man roster after hitting .294 (158 for 538) with 40 homers and 120 RBI at three different levels last year for Arizona and Miami. The Guards returned De Los Santos to Arizona at the end of spring training. Oscar Gonzalez, hero of the Guardians’ 2022 postseason , has signed a minor league deal with San Diego. Gonzalez, dropped by the Guardians, spent last season at Triple-A with the Yankees. He hit .294 (84 for 286) with eight homers and 45 for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Lefty Thomas Pannone, a 2013 Cleveland draft pick, has signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee and been invited to big league camp. Pannone, who has appeared in 50 games in the big leagues, was traded to Toronto by Cleveland in 2017 for Joe Smith. The Guardians have assigned Alfonsin Rosario, acquired from the Cubs for Eli Morgan , to Class A Lynchburg. Right-hander Cody Morris, Cleveland’s seventh round pick in 2018, was recently released by the Yankees. He was 6-0 with a 4.03 ERA in 26 games for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last season. The Guardians traded him to the Yankee last December for outfielder Estevan Florial, who filed for free agency after the 2024 season.
Department of Conservation investigating video of deer being beaten in Phelps CountyThe Department for Work and Pensions has issued a fresh update over its plans for sweeping Jobcentre reforms. The DWP employment minister wants to create new ‘public employment service’ to transform the UK job market, she has said. Labour Party MP Alison McGovern told the Guardian newspaper of the government's new plans to “Get Britain Working”. “The big question, I think that everybody’s been thinking about, post-pandemic in the country, is how we can deal with the fact that we seem to have a nation that is less well than it was before, and as a consequence, partly of that, partly of other things, seems to be working less,” McGovern says. The government is targeting an 80 per cent employment rate meaning two million people claiming Universal Credit , Jobseekers' Allowance and other benefits will be pushed back into work. The plan includes plans to “transform” the UK’s 650 jobcentres into “a genuine public employment service”. READ MORE Urgent 'stay at home' warning issued over nasty bug 'sweeping all age groups' “The problem is, by and large, not work coaches,” Ms McGovern went on to say in her interview. “The problem is time. So if you are spending your time dealing with old technology and inadequate systems that are laborious, the person in front of you is just sat there.” “The ‘into work rate’ is poor and falling,” she says. “So whilst there’s lots of jobcentres doing the right thing, the system is not helping.” She added: “We need people to have a jobcentre in their pocket, if that’s what’s best for them, and that frees up time for people who really need it.” This week's white paper marks part of the government’s efforts to lower the record 2.8 million people off work as a result of long-term illness, leading to growing welfare costs and denting Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s hopes of securing economic growth.
The 2024 season hasn’t finished. There are still conference championship games to play, an expanded College Football Playoff to look forward to and bowl season in the near future. However, the first important date for the 2025 season is here. “Signing day is the fourth, portal opens on the ninth,” coach Jedd Fisch said on Nov. 25. "I'm sure there's going to be a ton of discussions, and at that point in time we can really visit what it's going to look like in the future, what's the 2025 calendar year going to look like and what's this team going to look like moving forward." Fisch and the Huskies will have their first chance to sign high school recruits for the 2025 season when the three-day early signing period begins on Wednesday. Washington currently holds commitments from 28 high school football players from across the country, and 247Sports composite ratings ranks UW’s 2025 recruiting class No. 19 nationally. UW has 16 offensive recruits, 11 defensive prospects and one specialist committed. California is home to 11 of them, five are from Washington, three from Oregon, two from Arizona, while Alabama, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, North Dakota and Texas each have one representative. The Division I Council previously voted to eliminate the 25-player limit on football recruiting classes on Oct. 4, 2023. The limit was initially suspended for two years starting in 2021 because of questions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, this signing period is almost three weeks earlier than its past iterations. The Collegiate Commissioners Association, which oversees and administers the National Letter of Intent program, announced the change back in March. The early signing period was initially introduced in 2017. Moving the early signing period forward helped reduce the stress of an overcrowded December recruiting calendar. During the past few seasons, the early signing period and the transfer portal overlapped. This year, however, the early signing period will end on Friday, while the portal won’t officially open until Dec. 9. New dates aren’t the only changes to the early signing period. In October, the NCAA Division I Council announced the elimination of the NLI program, which was first established in 1964. Instead, high school recruits will sign aid agreements on Wednesday, which serve a similar purpose. The agreements bind players to their chosen school unless they officially enter the transfer portal, while also prohibiting recruitment communications with other programs. They also may contain contracts for revenue sharing, which the House v. NCAA settlement allows starting next season. Fifth-year linebacker Carson Bruener and junior running back Jonah Coleman earned third-team All-Big Ten honors when the conference announced its end-of-season awards on Tuesday. Bruener was a consensus selection by the coaches and the media. The Woodinville native and UW captain has 93 tackles, two tackles for a loss, a forced fumble, three interceptions, and five pass breakups during his final season in purple and gold. Bruener was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention in 2023. Coleman, who was chosen by the media, has 1,011 yards on 184 carries and 10 touchdowns in his debut season with Washington. He’s averaging 5.5 yards per attempt and 84.3 rushing yards per game. Coleman, who was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention at Arizona in 2023, also has 22 catches for 170 yards. The Big Ten coaches chose Ohio State’s TreVeyon Henderson instead of Coleman for the third-team running back spot, choosing the Washington running back as an honorable mention instead. Additionally, sophomore wide receiver Denzel Boston was a consensus All-Big Ten honorable mention. The coaches also selected senior tight end Keleki Latu, sixth-year linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala, senior defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez and senior cornerback Thaddeus Dixon as All-Big Ten honorable mentions. Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel was named the conference’s offensive player of the year, while Penn State edge rusher Abdul Carter was the defensive player of the year. Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith earned freshman of the year honors while Indiana’s Curt Cignetti was named coach of the year by both the coaches and the media. Washington endured its second transfer portal defection on Tuesday, as junior edge rusher Maurice Heims announced he will depart the team after four years on Montlake. “Thank you for making the last four years here some of the best of my life,” Heims wrote in a post on his social media accounts. Heims, a 6-foot-5, 263-pound pass rusher from Hamburg, Germany, played in 30 games at Washington after arriving before the 2021 season. He registered nine tackles, two tackles for a loss and one sack. Heims was mostly a special-teams player this season. He has one season of eligibility remaining. “As a kid from Hamburg, Germany that was completely new to this beautiful sport and this city, you have made every moment amazing,” Heims wrote. “Whether win or loss, y’all have always had our back and you are what makes this place truly special.”
Maharashtra Elections 2024: Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis Likely To Claim CM's Post If Mahayuti Forms Govt AgainThe people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. 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, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
