The team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon , the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 trillion budget, employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials, and effect Americans' daily lives: The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines about if and when kids should get vaccinated . The World Health Organization estimates that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives over the past 50 years, and that 100 million of them were infants. Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , 71, who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products, as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear out “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. This story has been corrected to reflect that the health agencies have an overall budget of about $1.7 trillion, not $1.7 billion. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!The team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
A Woman Appeared on the English Stage for the First Time on This Day in 1660, Transforming the World of Theater Forever
Kick out foreign crooks in our jails THE disgraceful state of Britain’s justice system should shame both the Tories and Labour. It is shocking enough to see criminals with up to 300 previous offences being spared jail . But the fact is that just 10 per cent of these prolific offenders are responsible for half of all crime . These fiends bring terror to OAPs who are robbed in the street, shoppers whose phones are nabbed and revellers violently assaulted on a night out. They should be getting long stretches inside to protect the public. But there are fears that Labour may be planning to water down sentences to ease overcrowding behind bars. No doubt Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood will trot out the usual excuse that prisons are full. READ MORE FROM THE SUN SAYS Well, that just won’t wash. Because we are doing next to nothing to kick out foreign lags taking up space in British jails. This country only deported one per cent of the 10,000 foreign criminals filling up our cells in 2024. Just 73 were returned to their home countries to serve out their sentences there. Under the Tories the figure for the year before was even worse. Most read in The Sun The Justice Secretary urgently needs to get a grip of this crisis. Or voters fed up with soft sentencing will dish out some justice of their own. No U-turn on Begum JIHADI bride Shamima Begum feels her case for a return to the UK has been “bolstered’’ by the fall of President Assad in Syria . You may remember that she fled to join the murderous monsters of I.S. and was rightly stripped of her British citizenship. The present Attorney General called that decision “draconian’’ during one of her appeals when he was working as a lawyer. But in case Lord Hermer is thinking of changing her status, he should remember that 100 other extremists and their families in Syria would follow Begum back to the UK if she is ever given the green light. They would not only need housing and other support but also round the clock monitoring, a huge drain on our security services. Shamima Begum joined I.S. in the full knowledge of its murderous intent against the West. She must never set foot on our shores again. Political spectre-um A SENIOR aide to the Commons Speaker has revealed the House is haunted . READ MORE SUN STORIES This will come as no surprise to OAPs struggling with winter fuel bills . They’ve been suffering a Westminster spine-chiller all winter.
Canada Post says it has removed the deadline for its Santa Claus letter program amid an ongoing national workers’ strike that has halted mail delivery leading up to the holiday season. Some 55,000 workers walked off the job more than two weeks ago, suspending mail service — and a program that helps deliver up to 1.5 million letters from Canadian kids to the North Pole each year. The postal service says in a statement that while the initial deadline to mail a letter to Santa with the iconic H0H 0H0 postal code was Dec. 6, it has now removed the deadline from its website. It says once operations resume, it will ensure that all letters make it to the North Pole and receive a reply, but it cannot guarantee delivery dates. Canada Post says since the program began more than 40 years ago, Santa’s North Pole post office has delivered replies to more than 45 million letters. During the strike, some communities have stepped up to deliver Santa’s mail themselves, offering their own local programming on social media to make sure letter writers receive a reply by Christmas. The strike entered its 19th day as the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping weekend came to a close. Canada Post said Monday it was waiting for the union to respond to a framework it presented over the weekend for reaching negotiated agreements. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has said it’s reviewed the proposal. It said Canada Post has moved closer to the union’s position on some issues, but the framework “still remains far from something members could ratify.” One of the sticking points has been a push to add weekend delivery, with the union and Canada Post disagreeing over how the rollout would work. The federal government has been under pressure from the business community to intervene in the strike but has said that’s not in the cards.
A convicted child sex offender spent months working for a key government-funded legal service that handles sexually sensitive cases and claims to run police checks for all new staff. Black Friday Sale Subscribe Now! Login or signup to continue reading All articles from our website & app The digital version of Today's Paper Breaking news alerts direct to your inbox Interactive Crosswords, Sudoku and Trivia All articles from the other regional websites in your area Continue According to multiple sources familiar with the situation, Legal Aid ACT hired Bradley John Burch to work as a criminal practice paralegal in mid-2023. It's understood Burch, 40, worked with the legal organisation for about two or three months, when he was known as Brad Sexton, before his employment ceased abruptly. Three years earlier, the man escaped spending time behind bars when he was handed a one-year intensive correction order , a two-year good behaviour order and 300 hours of community service. Then-ACT Supreme Court chief justice Helen Murrell sentenced Burch to the community-based jail term "despite having significant reservations about doing so". The former ACT Health director had previously admitted to possessing and using a carriage service to transmit child abuse material. Among a series of disturbing online exchanges discovered by police, Burch told one person purporting to be a woman babysitting a five-year-old girl he could break into her home and rape the child. "I would be in pedo heaven," he messaged. Several sources have confirmed convicted child sex offender Bradley Burch worked for Legal Aid ACT in 2023. Pictures by Tim Piccione, supplied The pair of online predators discussed opening up a childcare centre to abuse children and having a child together whom they could sexually assault. Photos of children being raped by adults were also found on Burch's computer. Last week, Burch was spotted at the ACT court registry looking starkly different from the image used in previous reporting of his court case. He now has a thick grey and brown beard and a buzz cut. It is unclear why he was inside the court precinct. Legal Aid silent on ex-employee Legal Aid ACT refused to answer questions about Burch, his hiring, why his employment ceased and whether the organisation had changed its employee vetting process since. Legal Aid ACT chief executive officer John Boersig. Picture by Graham Tidy Chief executive officer John Boersig told The Canberra Times : "We are unable to disclose details about current or former staff." It's understood Burch would have had access to documents relating to sensitive cases, including ones involving reports and allegations of child sexual abuse, in his role as a criminal practice paralegal. A spokesperson for ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury, who was the territory's attorney-general in 2023, said the politician was not aware of the circumstances surrounding Burch's employment. "The attorney-general would regularly meet with Legal Aid ACT and receive briefings which refer to the work of Legal Aid ACT," they said. "Over his term as attorney-general, Mr Rattenbury has always expected to be briefed on policy matters, matters of public interest and matters of significant risk." ACT Greens leader and former attorney-general Shane Rattenbury was not made aware of the situation. Picture by Karleen Minney The spokesperson also noted the organisation was an independent statutory authority operating separately from the attorney-general's purview. An ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate spokesperson said Legal Aid ACT does not report to the government on staffing matters. "All questions regarding employment at Legal Aid should be directed to its chief executive officer," they said. Police check, working with vulnerable people registration One thing Dr Boersig did confirm was that Legal Aid ACT obtains a national police check and conducts a risk assessment for all staff joining the territory's legal service. National police checks are conducted by the AFP. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong Under the process, Burch would have been hired despite the office applying for a check tasked with reporting criminal convictions from jurisdictions across the country. According to an Australian Federal Police spokesperson, about 72 per cent of the more than 900,000 national police checks conducted every year are returned within 48 hours. Speaking generally, they said checks that face complications, require manual assessments or are affected by inaccurate information can be delayed - sometimes for multiple months. It's understood a name change could be one such complication. It is unclear whether Burch legally changed his name between being convicted in July 2020 and applying for a job with Legal Aid ACT. According to the federal government's Australian Business Register, an individual/sole trader Australian Business Number was registered under the entity name Bradley John Burch in 2004. In August 2022, less than a month after Burch's good behaviour order should have expired, the entity name attached to that ABN changed to Bradley John Sexton. Dr Boersig also said: "We require all employees with direct engagement with clients to hold a Working With Vulnerable People registration if they are non-lawyers." It is understood paralegals working for the organisation must hold such a registration, which requires applicants to disclose their criminal history. The ACT Magistrates Court, which frequently deals with cases of child sexual abuse and in which Legal Aid workers operate daily. Picture by Karleen Minney According to the Access Canberra registration webpage: "You must disclose all charges or convictions in relation to relevant offences." Child abuse-related charges disqualify someone from obtaining a Working With Vulnerable People registration relating to jobs that involve contact with children, for example. 'All little girls need a daddy like me' Police discovered Burch's crimes in 2019 when they received reports of a social media account engaging in online chat constituting child exploitation material. The description on the then-public servant's Tumblr account included: "Older male into ddlg [an acronym for Daddy Dom Little Girl], rape play and everything kinky." Legal Aid ACT CEO John Boersig declined to answer questions about Bradley Burch's employment. Picture by Tim Piccione In the initially discovered online conversation, Burch asked another user if they shared their child with anyone and "any rules for if I borrow?" The user sent Burch an image and video of child abuse. Once police officers seized the offender's phone and computer, numerous sexualised interactions on different online platforms were revealed. MORE COURT AND CRIME NEWS : Teacher allegedly raped student in '90s, accused of tutoring without checks Concerns doctors eligible for slice of $31m in compensation unaware or afraid Corrections officer accused of threatening to kill, attempting to run over man Burch told one person that "all little girls need a daddy like me", and extensively discussed violently raping a child with another user. Asked if he was a sex offender, the man responded: "[I] haven't been caught yet, but would be put away for a long time if I was." He also engaged in highly sexualised conversations with two online users purporting to be children, one of whom sent multiple selfies of a young girl at his request. Sentence Burch later told a forensic psychiatrist he knew the conversations were "immoral" but claimed not realising "it was illegal". Chief Justice Murrell found the man lacked insight into his criminal conduct and continued to rationalise it. In her sentencing remarks, the judge said the prosecution had submitted that, absent exceptional circumstances, a sentence of full-time custody was generally warranted for crimes like Burch's. Former ACT chief justice Helen Murrell, who sentenced Bradley Burch in 2020. Picture by Karleen Minney But the judge ultimately ruled general deterrence could be appropriately met through a community-based jail term. For his possession charge, Burch was notably only sentenced over five child exploitation images described in court documents as being a "sample of the images" on his computer. "Due to subsequent drive failure, the relevant folder could not later be recovered by digital forensics for further analysis," the 2020 judgment said. Chief Justice Murrell also imposed the intensive correction order in the circumstances that time in custody "would be attended by the additional constraints of the current COVID-19 pandemic". "The offender would be significantly more restricted than would ordinarily be the case, particularly in relation to visits, and that he would run a higher risk of contracting the disease," she said. More employment controversy This is not the first time Burch has been embroiled in public controversy over his employment status in the territory's public service. In 2020, several politicians were furious when it was revealed Burch had continued working in a senior position with ACT Health for six months after police raided his home and arrested him. Bradley Burch kept his job with ACT Health for six months after being arrested. Picture by Dion Georgopoulos "There has been a catastrophic bungling of process and the community deserves to know why," then-Liberal Legislative Assembly member Vicki Dunne said . At the time, Labor Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said Burch had failed to notify his government employer about the serious charges against him as required by his contract. The sex offender was fired soon after his charges were discovered. The Canberra Times previously reported Burch appeared to have remained in a work-based WhatsApp group in which colleagues shared photographs of their children. Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; Bravehearts 1800 272 831; Blue Knot Foundation 1300 657 380. Share Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Email Copy Tim Piccione Court reporter Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au. Tim is a journalist with the Canberra Times covering the ACT courts. He came to the nation's capital via the Daily Advertiser in Wagga. Contact: tim.piccione@canberratimes.com.au. More from Canberra Convicted child sex offender hired by government-funded legal service 15m ago Don't worry about Hastie's tough talk, we've got actual crises to prepare for 15m ago No comment s What's happened and what's ahead for the APS 15m ago No comment s Property forecast: rental market uncertain heading into 2025 15m ago No comment s A stunning feat of democracy went unnoticed. A telling sign of Australia's literacy 15m ago No comment s Ratings shouldn't figure in ABC decisions. So we're owed some explanations 15m ago No comment s Newsletters & Alerts View all DAILY Your morning news Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. Loading... 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The mother of Suchir Balaji , a former employee at ChatGPT-parent OpenAI who accused the company of violating copyright laws in October and was found dead a month later, has demanded an FBI investigation into his death. The 26-year-old OpenAI whistleblower and researcher was found dead in his San Francisco apartment in California on November 26. Officials had ruled Mr Balaji's death a suicide. In a post on X on Sunday, his mother, Poornima Ramarao, said they hired a private investigator and did a second autopsy to throw light on the cause of death. The private autopsy "doesn't confirm" the cause of death stated by police, she said. Ms Ramarao also alleged that Mr Balaji's apartment - which was reportedly on the Buchanan Street - was "ransacked". "There was a sign of struggle in the bathroom and it looks like someone hit him in the bathroom based on blood spots," she said. "It's a cold-blooded murder declared by authorities as suicide. Lobbying in SF city doesn't stop us from getting justice," Ms Ramarao said while demanding an FBI probe. Update on @suchirbalaji We hired private investigator and did second autopsy to throw light on cause of death. Private autopsy doesn't confirm cause of death stated by police. Suchir's apartment was ransacked , sign of struggle in the bathroom and looks like some one hit him... — Poornima Rao (@RaoPoornima) December 29, 2024 In her post, she tagged billionaire Elon Musk and Indian-American tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who are set to be part of the incoming Donald Trump administration. Mr Musk, who has a long-standing feud with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, responded to her post, saying "This doesn't seem like a suicide". This doesn't seem like a suicide — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 29, 2024 According to media reports, Mr Balaji's father, Balaji Ramamurthy, while speaking at a vigil held for his son in Milpitas, California, said he was the last person to talk to him on November 22. During the 15-minute call, he said they talked about his Los Angeles trip which was part of his birthday celebration. "He was in LA and having a good time. So he sent us all the pictures," Guardian quoted Mr Ramamurthy as saying. "He was in a good mood." Suchir Balaji had alleged that OpenAI's AI models were trained on copyrighted material scraped from the internet without authorisation, a practice he argued was harmful. "If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company," Mr Balaji told the New York Times in an interview this year. The Indian-origin techie quit the company in October 2023 after spending nearly four years in the company. At OpenAI, he contributed to data collection for the company's flagship product, ChatGPT. Mr Balaji explained his concerns further on his personal website, claiming that the company's process of copying data for model training amounted to potential copyright infringement. He noted that while generative models rarely produce outputs identical to their training data, the act of replicating copyrighted material during training could violate laws if not protected under "fair use." "This is not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole," he told the New York Times in October. OpenAI, however, disputed his claims, insisting that their data use adhered to fair use principles and legal precedents. "We build our AI models using publicly available data, in a manner protected by fair use and related principles, and supported by longstanding and widely accepted legal precedents. We view this principle as fair to creators, necessary for innovators, and critical for US competitiveness," the company said in a statement. After its release in 2022, he began questioning the legal and ethical implications of OpenAI's practices. By mid-2023, he concluded that such AI technologies were damaging to the internet and society, prompting his resignation. Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world