Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
RFK Jr. Hopes To Win Over The Senate With Less Talk About Vaccines
The Wall Street Journal: RFK Jr. Has A Battle Plan To Get Senate Confirmation
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s attempt to win over Capitol Hill starts this week with a strategy to play down the topic of vaccines, adhere tightly to President-elect Donald Trump’s messaging on abortion and talk up healthy food and preventing chronic disease, according to people familiar with his thinking. ... Kennedy is slated to be on the Hill several days this week, sitting down with over two dozen senators and a team of Republican staffers, people familiar with his plans said. His team is hoping to assuage senators’ concerns about his broad criticism of vaccines, according to people familiar with his strategy. He is likely to tell senators that, if confirmed to lead HHS, he isn’t planning to take anyone’s vaccines away and instead wants to promote transparent, safe, effective vaccines, the people said. (Whyte, Peterson and Andrews, 12/16)
The Hill: RFK Jr. Seeks To Win Over Senate GOP Skeptics As He Begins HHS Meetings
“He’s in a good spot. You haven’t really heard much consternation about his nomination at all in recent weeks,” one Senate GOP aide told The Hill, adding they expect Kennedy’s focus to be on his “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) priorities and assuaging Republicans that he does not still support abortion. “If that turns out to be true, I think he’ll be on a glide path to being confirmed,” the aide added. (Weixel and Weaver, 12/15)
The Washington Post: How Donald Trump Broke The Ice Between RFK Jr. And Drug Company CEOs
President-elect Donald Trump set two tables for a dinner party this month with his choice for health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and drug company executives like the ones Kennedy once accused of belonging to a “criminal enterprise” that knowingly killed patients for profit. They gathered first in a side dining room at his Mar-a-Lago estate, until Trump made clear that he wanted the meal to proceed as something less formal. He proposed that the diners — who included the chief executives of Pfizer, Eli Lilly and the trade group PhRMA — relocate to a second round table on the patio, where music was playing, to better enjoy the winter Palm Beach evening, according to three people familiar with the dinner’s discussion, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private event. (Scherer and Roubein, 12/15)
In other news about vaccine skepticism —
Axios: Polio Vax Petition Could Preview More Challenges
Efforts to revoke Food and Drug Administration approval of the polio vaccine could provide a preview of how vaccine skeptics plan to challenge decades of federal health policy during a second Trump administration, experts say. (Reed, 12/16)
The Washington Post: Polio Survivor Mitch McConnell Criticizes Efforts To Undermine Vaccine
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who battled polio as a child, warned on Friday that anyone seeking a Senate confirmation should “steer clear” of associating with any efforts to undermine public confidence in the polio vaccine. “The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell said in a statement. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.” (Vazquez, 12/13)
The New York Times: Are Childhood Vaccines ‘Overloading’ The Immune System? No.
It’s an idea as popular as it is incorrect: American babies now receive too many vaccines, which overwhelm their immune systems and lead to conditions like autism. This theory has been repeated so often that it has permeated the mainstream, echoed by President-elect Donald J. Trump and his pick to be the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Mandavilli, 12/14)
The Washington Post: Dave Weldon, Trump’s CDC Pick, Has A Long History Of Vaccine Skepticism
The world’s most respected infectious-disease agency needed a new leader. Anti-vaccine activists knew just the man: Dave Weldon, a Florida physician and former seven-term Republican congressman who had for years expressed concerns about the safety of vaccines. The year was 2017. Weldon didn’t get the job then, but, seven years later, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped the 71-year-old former Army doctor to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is charged with protecting the United States from health threats at home and abroad. That includes making vaccine recommendations — work that has come under fire from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime vaccine skeptic whom Trump has picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which has oversight over the CDC. (Sun, Nirappil and Schaffer, 12/15)
