Azar Defends Dual Goals Of Restructuring Medicaid, Eradicating HIV Despite Critics’ Claims That They Are Contradictory
HHS Alex Azar is supporting President Donald Trump's promise to tackle the HIV epidemic, by touting things such as needle exchanges. But the administration has faced criticism that its cuts to Medicaid run counter to their work on the crisis. Azar, however, says the increased flexibility that states would have would benefit patients with HIV.
NPR:
How HHS Secretary Alex Azar Reconciles Medicaid Cuts With Stopping The Spread Of HIV
In his State of the Union address this year, President Trump announced an initiative "to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years." The man who pitched the president on this idea is Alex Azar, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. "We have the data that tells us where we have to focus, we have the tools, we have the leadership — this is an historic opportunity," Azar told NPR's Ari Shapiro Monday. "I told the president about this, and he immediately grabbed onto this and saw the potential to alleviate suffering for hundreds of thousands of individuals in this country and is deeply passionate about making that happen." (Shapiro and Simmons-Duffin, 4/8)
In other news from the administration —
The Washington Post:
NIH Director Apologizes For 'Mishandled’ Security That Blocked Iranian Scientists
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has apologized to two Iranian graduate students blocked from campus after they were asked to disclose their citizenship, amid growing opposition to the new security protocols enforced with scant explanation or notice. In an email Friday to the “NIH Family,” Collins said he is “deeply troubled” that a Georgetown University graduate student was interrupted during a presentation that was part of an application for a postdoctoral job and escorted from the campus in Bethesda, Md. He said he has “extended a personal apology" to that person. (Sun and Bernstein, 4/5)
