Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Vice President Vance And Wife Usha Are Expecting Fourth Child, A Boy
The Hill: Usha Vance Announces She's Pregnant With Fourth Child
The second family is expanding: Usha Vance, wife of Vice President Vance, is pregnant. “We’re very excited to share the news that Usha is pregnant with our fourth child, a boy,” the Vances said in a joint statement shared on social media on Tuesday. ... She is believed to be the first vice president’s wife in modern history to be pregnant while her husband was in office. Floride Calhoun, the wife of John C. Calhoun, gave birth to two children, in 1826 and 1829, while her husband was serving as vice president, according to Clemson University. (Kurtz, 1/20)
More from the Trump administration —
The Washington Post: Trump Administration Admits DOGE Accessed Personal Social Security Data
The Trump administration has acknowledged for the first time in a court filing that members of the U.S. DOGE Service accessed and shared sensitive Social Security data without the awareness of agency officials. The admission comes months after a whistleblower raised concerns that members of DOGE — the government cost-cutting operation founded by Elon Musk — had obtained one of the government’s most protected databases, risking the security of hundreds of millions of Americans’ private Social Security information. The agency had previously denied the whistleblower’s allegations. (Kornfield, 1/20)
The Hill: Funding Cuts By Trump Leave Researchers Uncertain
After a year of government layoffs and sweeping funding cuts under President Trump, many researchers are hanging on by a thread. The administration has said it is realigning federal spending to match its agenda, but scientists respond that even proposals that advance the White House’s goals have been ignored or cut. Medical advancements, education research, defense priorities — no area has proven safe from frozen funding, which has also come alongside massive reductions in the government agencies that support these areas. (Lonas Cochran, 1/20)
NPR: U.S. Withdrawal From WHO Is Set For Jan. 22. Will It Happen?
A year ago this week, President Trump initiated a divorce — of sorts. As night fell on his inauguration day activities, he signed an executive order saying: He wants out of the World Health Organization, or WHO. His executive order laid out his displeasures, including "the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states." (Emanuel and Lambert, 1/20)
On the immigration crisis —
The New York Times: Trump Calls Renee Good Killing A ‘Tragedy’ And Says ICE Agents Will Make Mistakes
President Trump on Tuesday said the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis was a “tragedy” about which he “felt terribly,” adding that the immigration agents he has deployed sometimes are “going to make a mistake.” The change in tone was stark for the president, who said he had been told that Ms. Good’s father was a strong Trump supporter. Just hours after she was killed on Jan. 7, Mr. Trump falsely claimed that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer” and said that she had “behaved horribly.” He later said Ms. Good, a poet and a mother of three, had a “highly disrespectful” attitude toward law enforcement and suggested that it justified her killing. (Patil, 1/20)
Sahan Journal: Minn. Man Hospitalized With Life-Threatening Injuries After ICE Arrest
According to the lawsuit, Alberto Castaneda Mondragon was taken by ICE officers to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina for head trauma within four hours of his arrest. He was then transferred to Hennepin County Medical Center. The lawsuit says he has life-threatening brain injuries, including multiple cranial fractures hemorrhaging in his brain and swelling and bruising around his eye. (Pross, 1/20)
AP: Doctors Say Minnesota's Immigration Crackdown Elevates Health Crisis For Patients
There was the pregnant woman who missed her medical checkup, afraid to visit a clinic during the Trump administration’s sweeping Minnesota immigration crackdown. A nurse found her at home, already in labor and just about to give birth. There was the patient with kidney cancer who vanished without his medicine in immigration detention facilities. It took legal intervention for his medicine to be sent to him, though doctors are unsure if he’s been able to take it. (Sullivan and Rush, 1/21)
The New York Times: To Their Shock, Cubans in Florida Are Being Deported in Record Numbers
Heidy Sánchez took her 17-month-old daughter to a routine check-in last April with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa, Fla. During the appointment, federal authorities told her that she was being detained and that her husband should pick up their daughter, who was still breastfeeding. Two days later, Ms. Sánchez, 44, who worked as a home health aide, was deported. ... As a senator, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Trump administration’s most prominent Cuban American, often criticized Cuban immigrants who received government benefits like food stamps and Medicaid, and frequently returned to the island. (Mazzei, 1/19)
