RFK Jr.’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Report Politely Scrutinizes Doctors

Politico: RFK Jr.’s Report Had A Surprise Target: Your Doctor
From food to pharma, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took on all the suspects he’s long maligned in a report on health threats to kids — along with one unexpected one: Doctors. Laced throughout the report from Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again Commission are accusations against doctors — for reportedly being influenced by the pharmaceutical industry to overprescribe certain medications and for failing to treat the root causes of disease. (Cirruzzo, 5/23)

CIDRAP: New 'Make America Healthy Again' Report Takes Aim At Vaccines
The "Make Our Children Healthy Again" report issued yesterday by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission—spearheaded by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—focuses on addressing chronic disease in kids in four areas, one of which includes the "growth of the childhood vaccine schedule." The approach indicates that officials will probe whether vaccines contribute to autism in kids, among other chronic health issues. (Wappes, 5/23)

AP: Trump Looks To End Digital Equity Program He Says Is Racist
One program distributes laptops in rural Iowa. Another helped people get back online after Hurricane Helene washed away computers and phones in western North Carolina. Programs in Oregon and rural Alabama teach older people, including some who have never touched a computer, how to navigate in an increasingly digital world. It all came crashing down this month when President Donald Trump — on his own digital platform, Truth Social — announced his intention to end the Digital Equity Act, a federal grant program meant to help bridge the digital divide. (Ortutay and Rush, 5/25)

AP: USDA Sued For Collecting Personal Data Of SNAP Recipients
Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal privacy laws when it ordered states and vendors to turn over five years of data about food assistance program applicants and enrollees, including their names, birth dates, personal addresses and social security numbers. (Boone, 5/23)

NBC News: Advocates Wait For The Results Of Trump's Executive Order On IVF Policy
This week, Julie Eshelman has been holding her breath, waiting to see if President Donald Trump delivers on his campaign promise to make in vitro fertilization free. Eshelman is a military wife and, thanks to IVF, a mom. She first began fertility treatments in 2016, and she and her husband finally welcomed a baby girl — five years, several miscarriages and $80,000 later. “It’s been a financial burden, but it’s one that we would do over and over again so that we can have our family,” Eshelman told NBC News. (Brooks and Alcindor, 5/23)

On funding and workforce cuts —

CNN: NIH Staff Stage Walkout During Director’s Town Hall As Tensions Persist Over Research Cuts, Ideology 
Twenty-seven minutes into a town hall with staff last week, US National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya acknowledged that he was going to get into uncomfortable territory. “This one’s a tough one for me,” Bhattacharya told the audience of researchers and other NIH employees gathered in an auditorium at the biomedical research agency’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, last Monday, before introducing one of the most divisive topics in science. (Tirrell, 5/26)

Stat: NIH Cuts Tracked By Researchers In Grant Watch Database 
Before the Trump administration, grant cancellations were a rarity — often reserved for cases of outright fraud or data manipulation. But, just months into the current administration, some 2,100 National Institutes of Health grants, totaling around $9.5 billion, have been terminated. For some time, there was no record of the devastation on the scientific community. (Oza, 5/27)

The Boston Globe: Trump Administration Funding Cuts Threaten Young Scientists
Becks Padrusch‘s fondest memories growing up were of trips to Boston’s Museum of Science, where the Arlington native got to touch animal organs and watch with fascination as chickens hatched in incubators. As a toddler, Padrusch, who uses they/them pronouns, insisted on bedtime stories about the solar system and how the planets formed. By age 5, Padrusch knew they wanted to be a scientist. (Serres and Parker, 5/27)

Politico: The Pool's Open. Trump's Laid Off The Team That Helps Protect Swimmers
Water safety officials usually spend Memorial Day weekend warning families that more toddlers die from drowning than any other cause. This year, fewer people will know about the risk. In April, President Donald Trump laid off the team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention responsible for tracking and publicizing drownings. That team also worked with partners like the YMCA and the American Red Cross to get at-risk children into swimming lessons. That collaboration has halted. (Gardner, 5/26)

USAID updates —

AP: US Aid Kept Many Hungry Somali Children Alive. Now That Money Is Disappearing
The cries of distressed children filled the ward for the severely malnourished. Among the patients was 1-year-old Maka’il Mohamed. ... The victim of complications related to malnutrition, the boy did not survive. ... The death earlier this month at Banadir Hospital captured the agony of a growing number of Somalis who are unable to feed their children — and that of health workers who are seeing hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. support disappear under the Trump administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development once provided 65% of Somalia’s foreign aid, according to Dr. Abdiqani Sheikh Omar, the former director general of the Ministry of Health and now a government advisor. (Faruk, 5/27)

AP: Haitians With HIV Defy Stigma As They Publicly Denounce USAID Cuts
A video showing dozens of people marching toward the office of Haiti’s prime minister elicited gasps from some viewers as it circulated recently on social media. The protesters, who were HIV positive, did not conceal their faces — a rare occurrence in a country where the virus is still heavily stigmatized. ... The protesters risked being shunned by society to warn that Haiti is running out of HIV medication just months after the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump slashed more than 90% of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall aid across the globe. (Coto and Sanon, 5/24)