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Welcome to The Logoff: The CDC is leaning into anti-vax rhetoric, suggesting in a current change to its web site that there is no such thing as a fastened scientific consensus on whether or not vaccines trigger autism (they don’t).
It additionally comes as a bigger energy battle, centering on Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, is unfolding over the administration’s well being care agenda and vaccine coverage. Whereas Kennedy and Makary have been publicly aligned on most points, information experiences counsel that their battle for affect is heating up.
Why are they preventing? A part of the issue could also be clashing administration kinds. However dig a bit deeper, and this seems to be the dynamic: Kennedy, the outsider anti-institutionalist with no medical background, is pushing to go larger and bolder and sooner with altering public well being coverage, whereas Makary, a former Johns Hopkins surgeon, is shifting extra deliberatively.
What does Donald Trump assume? That is the large query — and the toughest one to reply. Trump is inconsistent and has at occasions chided Kennedy for being overly anti-vaccine. However he additionally delivered an prolonged rant about aluminum in vaccines throughout a White Home occasion. On high of that, the difficulty isn’t a high precedence for him, which creates an influence vacuum that each Kennedy and Makary try to fill.
Why does this matter? The Kennedy-Makary tug-of-war helps us make sense of the Trump vaccine agenda to date: They’re extra anti-vaccine than any prior administration, however they’ve additionally hesitated to take larger swings. They need to appease the Make America Wholesome Once more coalition with out totally alienating extra vaccine-friendly voters or the drug trade.
But when Kennedy wins out, he might hit the accelerator on overhauling vaccine coverage in his anti-vax picture.
And with that, it’s time to log out…
NPR’s newest Tiny Desk Live performance, that includes the Goo Goo Dolls, was such a deal with, and you’ll take heed to it right here. I hope you get pleasure from, and as all the time, thanks for studying, have a terrific night, and we’ll see you again right here tomorrow!
