WASHINGTON D.C., DC — The team that President- elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choices 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: Dave Weldon , the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 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 trillion budget, employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials, and effect Americans' daily lives: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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 about if and when kids should get vaccinated . The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years, and that 100 million of them were infants. Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , 71, 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. 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, 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 out “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 included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 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. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services 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. Surgeon general 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.” National Institutes of Health 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.10 hot-ticket gifts we predict will sell out on Black Friday 2024Legal cases taking a toll on Sean 'Diddy' Combs' wealth: Is he really in trouble?y8 online games 。

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Clara Strack scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Teonni Key had 16 points and 13 rebounds and No. 14 Kentucky defeated Arizona State 77-61 on Tuesday in the Music City Classic to remain unbeaten. Kentucky nearly had four players with double-doubles as Georgia Amoore added 20 points and nine rebounds and Amelia Hassett had eight points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats (6-0), who shot 42% and scored 13 points off 14 Arizona State turnovers. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Tuesday that allows a San Jose State women’s volleyball team member to play in this week’s Mountain West Conference tournament after a legal complaint said she should be ineligible on grounds that she is transgender and thus stronger, posing a safety risk to teammates and opponents. A two-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with U.S. Magistrate S. Kato Crews in Denver. On Monday he rejected the request for an emergency injunction, finding the players and others who challenged the league’s policy of allowing transgender athletes to participate should have filed the complaint earlier. The tournament starts Wednesday in Las Vegas, but top-seeded Colorado State and second-seeded San Jose State have byes into Friday’s semifinal matches. Judge Crews and the 10th Circuit noted the request for the emergency injunction was filed in mid-November, less than two weeks before the tournament was scheduled to start. The complaint could have been made weeks earlier, both courts said. The first conference forfeit happened Sept. 28. All the schools that canceled games against San Jose State acknowledged at the time that they would take a league loss, Crews noted. The players and others who sued are disappointed that the appeals court found it would be “too disruptive” to enter an injunction the day before the tournament is scheduled to start, said William Bock III, an attorney for the plaintiffs. The appeals court said the plaintiffs' "claims appear to present a substantial question and may have merit,” but they have not made a clear case for emergency relief. “Plaintiffs look forward to ultimately receiving justice in this case when they prove these legal violations in court and to the day when men are no longer allowed to harm women and wreak havoc in women’s sport," Bock said in a statement. The athlete has played for San Jose State since 2022, but her participation only became an issue this season. The conference policy regarding forfeiting for refusing to play against a team with a transgender player has also been in effect since 2022, the conference said. Injunctions are meant to preserve the status quo, Judge Crews said, and her playing is the status quo. The motions for an injunction also asked that the four teams that had conference losses for refusing to play against San Jose State during the regular season have those losses removed from their records and that the tournament be re-seeded based on the updated records. Crews denied that motion and the 10th Circuit did not address it. Neither San Jose State nor the forfeiting teams have confirmed the school has a trans woman volleyball player. The Associated Press is withholding the player’s name because she has not commented publicly on her gender identity. School officials also have declined an interview request with the player. Crews’ ruling referred to the athlete as an “alleged transgender” player and noted that no defendant disputed that the San Jose State roster includes a transgender woman player. San Jose State “maintains an unwavering commitment to the participation, safety and privacy of all students at San Jose State and ensuring they are able to compete in an inclusive, fair and respectful environment,” Athletics Director Jeff Konya told students Tuesday. He praised the resilience student-athletes, the athletic department and staff have shown while the court challenges played out over the past nearly two weeks. “The fact that they have come to this point of the season as a team standing together on the volleyball court is a testament to their strength and passion for their sport,” Konya said. The conference said Monday it was “satisfied” with the judge’s decision and would continue upholding policies established by its board of directors, which “directly align with NCAA and USA Volleyball.” An NCAA policy that subjects transgender participation to the rules of sports governing bodies took effect this academic year. USA Volleyball says a trans woman must suppress testosterone for 12 months before competing. The NCAA has not flagged any issues with San Jose State. In Friday's semifinals, San Jose State is scheduled to play the winner of Wednesday’s match between Utah State and Boise State — teams that forfeited matches to San Jose State during the regular season. Boise State associate athletic director Chris Kutz declined to comment Monday on whether the Broncos would play San Jose State if they won their first-round tournament game. Utah State associate athletic director Doug Hoffman said the university is reviewing the order and the team is preparing for Wednesday’s match. Wyoming and Utah State also forfeited matches against San Jose State. Some athletic associations, Republican legislatures and school districts have sought in recent years to restrict the ability of transgender athletes, in particular transgender girls and women, to compete in line with their gender identity. The Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the team cancellations, citing fairness in women’s sports. President-elect Donald Trump likewise has spoken out against allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.

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