Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Political Pressure Inside HHS Policy Shop To Tailor Facts To Fit Trump's Message Unprecedented, Staffers Say
Politico: Trump Policy Shop Filters Facts To Fit His Message
President Donald Trump’s appointees in the health department have deleted positive references to Obamacare, altered a report that undermined the administration’s positions on refugees and added anti-abortion language to the strategic plan — part of an ideological overhaul of the agency’s research office. While every administration puts its imprint on the executive branch and promotes ideas that advance its own agenda, this one has ventured several steps further — from scrubbing links to climate change studies from an Environmental Protection Agency website to canceling an Interior Department study on coal mining risks and suppressing reports on water contamination and the dangers of formaldehyde. (Diamond, 7/28)
Meanwhile, an HHS official was escorted out of the agency on Friday —
Politico: HHS Official Who Spread Conspiracy Theories Forced Out
Ximena Barreto — a Donald Trump political appointee who used social media to spread conspiracy theories about a supposed pizza shop sex ring and made other inflammatory remarks — was escorted from Health and Human Services Department headquarters Friday, according to an individual with knowledge of the situation. Barreto resigned, the individual said. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An email sent to Barreto’s HHS account Friday night produced a bounce-back message that the message was “undeliverable.” (Diamond, 7/27)
The Hill: HHS Official Who Spread Pizzagate Conspiracy Theory Out At Agency
Barreto-Rice expressed a general disdain for Democratic politicians in her posts, including one that claimed “our forefathers would have hung" former President Obama and Clinton for treason, and claimed that Islam was a “f---ing cult, not a religion.” An HHS official told The Hill earlier this year that Barreto-Rice would be reassigned away from the department's communications staff, but that no official complaints on her work for HHS had been received. (Bowden, 7/27)
