Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Biden's Alleged Mental Decline Probed; Biden Calls Claims 'Ridiculous'
Politico: Trump Launches Investigation Into Whether Biden Aides Concealed Alleged Decline
President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation into whether aides to former President Joe Biden concealed alleged declines in his mental acuity, including by the use of an automatic pen to sign Biden’s name on official documents. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation will look into whether Biden’s aides attempted to “deceive the public” by hiding “serious cognitive decline” from the American people. (Bianco and Cheney, 6/4)
The Hill: Biden Calls Claims He Wasn’t Making Decisions In White House ‘Ridiculous And False’
Former President Biden on Wednesday rebuked claims from President Trump and other Republicans that he was not the one making decisions at the end of his time in the White House after Trump ordered an investigation into the matter. “Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn’t is ridiculous and false,” Biden said in a statement. (Samuels, 6/4)
From HHS —
Stat: Experts Examine Repercussions Of Kennedy's Covid Vaccine Policy
Delivering Covid vaccinations has never been an easy job. But health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rewriting of government recommendations will make the effort to get vaccine doses into arms exponentially more difficult, experts say. The changes will complicate discussions between pediatricians and parents, obstetricians and pregnant patients, and both groups and their insurers, these experts say. They will also likely result in Covid shots being harder to access, with fewer doctors choosing to stock them and fewer pharmacies willing to administer them, for both economic and liability reasons, the experts said. (Branswell, 6/5)
Modern Healthcare: What Is HHS' Administration For A Healthy America?
The Health and Human Services Department is about to have a brand-new agency for the first time in nearly a quarter century as Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. kickstarts his "Make America Healthy Again" agenda. The Administration for a Healthy America, proposed in the department's fiscal 2026 budget request, would centralize activities that other HHS agencies and offices currently oversee that touch on areas such as primary care, HIV/AIDS, mental health, maternal and child health, environmental health, rural health, and the healthcare workforce. (Early, 6/4)
Regarding federal program and funding cuts —
The New York Times: Trump Budget Eliminates Funding For Crucial Global Vaccination Programs
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year eliminates funding for programs that provide lifesaving vaccines around the world, including immunizations for polio. The budget proposal, submitted to Congress last week, proposes to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s global health unit, effectively shutting down its $230 million immunization program: $180 million for polio eradication and the rest for measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases. (Mandavilli, 6/4)
The New York Times: Here Are The Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled Or Delayed By Trump
In his first months in office, President Trump has slashed funding for medical research, threatening a longstanding alliance between the federal government and universities that helped make the United States the world leader in medical science. Some changes have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye, a New York Times analysis found. (Hwang, Huang, Anthes, Migliozzi and Mueller, 6/4)
KFF Health News: Trump Decried Crime In America, Then Gutted Funding For Gun Violence Prevention
Violent crime was already trending down from a covid-era spike when President Donald Trump presented a picture of unbridled crime in America on the campaign trail in 2024. Now his administration has eliminated about $500 million in grants to organizations that buttress public safety, including many working to prevent gun violence. In Oakland, California, a hospital-based program to prevent retaliatory gun violence lost a $2 million grant just as the traditionally turbulent summer months approach. Another $2 million award was pulled from a Detroit program that offers social services and job skills to young people in violent neighborhoods. And in St. Louis, a clinic treating the physical and emotional injuries of gunshot victims also lost a $2 million award. (Sable-Smith, 6/5)
Politico: A Plan To Preserve U.S. Science Leadership
National Academy of Sciences President Marcia McNutt made a plea to the nation’s science research community during her second annual State of the Science address in Washington on Tuesday: Course-correct or lose to China. We’re in the midst of a “radical new experiment,” McNutt explained, in which the U.S., by pursuing budget cuts, canceling grants and adopting restrictive research policies, serves as the treatment group, while China is the control. (Schumaker, 6/4)
