UN publishes new death toll for massacre of older people and Vodou religious leaders in HaitiThe 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: 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. 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. 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. This story has been corrected to reflect that the health agencies have an overall budget of about $1.7 trillion, not $1.7 billion. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!
Defense fund established by supporters of suspected CEO killer Luigi Mangione nears $200KGlobal stocks pressured ahead of Fed decision
The Senate is pushing toward a vote on legislation that would provide full Social Security benefits to millions of people, setting up potential passage in the final days of the lame-duck Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday he would begin the process for a final vote on the bill, known as the Social Security Fairness Act, which would eliminate policies that currently limit Social Security payouts for roughly 2.8 million people. Schumer said the bill would "ensure Americans are not erroneously denied their well-earned Social Security benefits simply because they chose at some point to work in their careers in public service." The legislation passed the House on a bipartisan vote, and a Senate version of the bill introduced last year gained 62 cosponsors. But the bill still needs support from at least 60 senators to pass Congress. It would then head to President Biden. At least one GOP senator who signed onto similar legislation last year, Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, said he... Associated PressAam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Naresh Balyan was detained by the Delhi Police on Saturday in connection with an alleged extortion case dating back to 2023. The detention comes shortly after the release of an alleged audio clip by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in which Balyan is purportedly heard discussing extortion tactics with a gangster to target a businessman. According to the Delhi Police Crime Branch, Balyan is currently being questioned as part of their ongoing investigation into the extortion case. "AAP MLA Naresh Balyan has been detained by Delhi Police and is being questioned by the crime branch in the alleged 2023 extortion case," ANI quoted the police as saying. Earlier today, Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva accused the AAP of "extorting money from the public" in the national capital. The accusations followed the release of an alleged audio clip by the BJP, in which AAP MLA Naresh Balyan is purportedly heard discussing extortion tactics with a gangster to target a businessman. The BJP's move to release the audio clip has intensified the political debate, with Sachdeva alleging that AAP's leadership is involved in illegal activities aimed at exploiting the people of Delhi. While the authenticity of the clip is yet to be verified, the accusations have drawn significant attention, fueling further scrutiny of the AAP's operations in the city. "Arvind Kejriwal's criminal face is now evident. He is out on bail, and his MLA is involved in looting the public. According to the audio clips circulating on social media, Naresh Balyan, the MLA from Uttam Nagar, is giving tips to gangsters, instructing them to threaten people and extort money, which is then shared," Sachdeva was quoted as saying in an IANS report. "This is the condition of the AAP MLAs, who were elected to serve the public but are now exploiting them. This exposes the true criminal face of the AAP," he further said. The BJP leader demanded swift action from investigative agencies, urging them to ensure that individuals like Balyan, who allegedly use gangsters for extortion, are brought to justice. "The MLA himself is accused of using gangsters to extort money from his close associates, including a builder. Agencies must investigate and ensure such individuals are put behind bars. The safety of Delhiites is at stake, and action is necessary based on the evidence provided," he said. Sachdeva expressed concerns about the alleged connections between AAP MLA Naresh Balyan and gangster Kapil Sangwan, also known as "Nandu," who is reportedly operating from London. "Earlier, BJP accused Naresh Balyan of collusion with Kapil Sangwan. Sangwan is a Najafgarh resident and has been accused in the murder case of INLD leader Nafe Singh," Sachdeva said. He also criticized AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal for shifting the blame and avoiding responsibility. "Kejriwal always attacks the Centre for the deteriorating law and order in Delhi but never addresses issues under his purview like water supply and roads," Sachdeva said. He questioned why Kejriwal refuses to address critical issues such as poor road conditions, water supply problems, high electricity bills, and the alleged corruption surrounding the 'Sheesh Mahal' and the excise policy case. "He should focus on answering for his governance failures rather than making irrelevant statements. The people of Delhi deserve accountability," Sachdeva added.
"LEQEMBI®" (Lecanemab) Approved for the Treatment of Early Alzheimer's Disease in MexicoOffshore Structural Analysis Software Market: Growth to USD 1067.43M by 2031
Column: Money wasted on culturally divisive issues could be spent helping kidsFormer prime minister Elisabeth Borne was named as Education Minister in the reshuffle. Gerald Darmanin, who served as Interior Minister between July 2020 and September 2024 under three prime ministers, returns as Justice Minister. Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, retains his post as Interior Minister. Rachida Dati keeps the culture portfolio while Jean-Noel Barrot and Sebastien Lecornu maintain their jobs leading the foreign affairs and defence ministries respectively. The composition of the cabinet was unveiled just before 7pm following a frantic weekend of negotiations. Xavier Bertrand, who had been offered the Justice Ministry, stated that he would not join Bayrou's government, because it had been formed with the approval of Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally (RN). Bayrou drafted Manuel Valls back into government as minister for overseas territories. The 62-year-old served as prime minister under President François Hollande between April 2014 and December 2016. His first assignment will be to implement a recovery programme for Mayotte which was devastated after Cyclone Chido swept through the Indian Ocean archipelago on 14 December. At least 35 people have been confirmed dead and more than 2,500 injured. The death toll is expected to rise due to the number of undocumented migrants in Mayotte. Other appointments include Éric Lombard as Minister of the Economy and François Rebsamen as minister in charge of decentralisation. Repeated delays The Elysee presidential palace said on Monday morning the new cabinet would not be announced before 6pm Paris time due to the day of mourning in France for the victims in Mayotte. Macron returns to political uncertainty after Mayotte, East Africa visit Bayrou , 73, who heads the liberal Democratic Movement (MoDem) party, promised to present a government last week. But his delay reflected the chaos swirling over the French body politic since President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections last summer. The move backfired spectacularly. No party or alliance secured a majority. After weeks of bickering and manoeuvring, Macron named former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier prime minister on 5 September 2024. His reign ended ignominiously earlier in December when the far right and left joined forces to oust him and furnish him with the infamy of being the premier with the shortest tenure since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958. French lawmakers oust Prime Minister Barnier after just three months in office Macron appointed Bayrou on 13 December, hoping that his new administration would be presented before Christmas". "The length of this auditioning process ... is unbearable," far-right National Rally lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy told French broadcaster BFMTV-RMC. Bayrou says he wants to make sure his government can pass a budget for next year. But many commentators predict his premiership will rival Barnier for rapidity: many of the names adorning his cabinet featured in the past two governments that failed. Outgoing French government to present 'special' budget to avoid shutdown (with newswires)Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’
