The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees 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: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon 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 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 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 on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC 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. Food and Drug Administration 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 our “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 including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID 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. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services 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. Surgeon general 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.” National Institutes of Health 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.
The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent 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.Tanner, Charles connect for 2 TDs and Robert Morris tops Stonehill 31-13
The chief of Ankaful, in the Cape Coast metropolis of the Central Region, Nana Oburasankoma Ansah, has engaged stakeholders in the Central Region on ways to uphold peace before, during and after the upcoming elections. Addressing the gatherings on the purpose of the day’s event, Nana Oburasankoma Ansah, noted that the the world cannot overemphasise the value of peace. He mentioned African countries like Rwanda, Sierra Leone, La Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, and others who failed to manage their electoral processes in the past, which resulted in violence that maimed and killed several citizens, and displaced thousands. The quest for a peaceful election led him to invite stakeholders like the Peace Council, NGOs that preach peace, the Electoral Commission Ghana, political parties, the ECG and telecommunication agencies in the country to ways to ensure peace during the election period. He pleaded with the entire citizenry, especially, the youth not to allow greedy and evil politicians to manipulate and incite them to cause mayhem, before, during and after the December 7 elections. Nana Oburasankoma Ansah further advised the youth to love one another, saying the NPP and NDC supporters are Ghanaians, so they are one family. He noted that hatred, violence and disunity have no place in Ghana. He urged them to vote based on policies instead of religion, ethnicity or social class. The chairman of the Central Regional Peace Council, Rt. Reverend Richardson Aboagye Andam, who doubles as the Methodist Bishop of the Cape Coast Diocese, commended Nana Oburasankoma Ansah for his desire for peace. Rt. Reverend Richardson Aboagye Andam disclosed that the core mandate of the Peace Council is to ensure peace prevails or address issues confronting Ghana’s peace without having to wait till problems arise before finding antidotes to them. He asked Ghanaians to eschew fake news sharing, as that could jeopardise peaceful co-existence among the people. He condemned defacing posters belonging to political opponents, citing such acts could cause clashes among party supporters. He further advised the citizenry to report activities that could mar the elections. Rt. Reverend Richardson Aboagye Andam pleaded with all registered voters to join queues and wait patiently for their turns to cast their votes. He urged Ghanaians not to go to polling stations with dangerous weapons. Some of the traditional rulers present urged the youth to remain tolerant, and avoid violence and asked them to embrace peace at all times. Representatives of the Electricity Company of Ghana and the Telecommunication network companies pledged to do their bit for a stable electricity power supply and communication network before, during and after this year’s elections. The representative of the Ghana Prisons Service disclosed that doors to various prison camps in the country are ready to welcome individuals who may ferment troubles. The event offered an opportunity for the participants to ask questions on issues bordering their minds.London, United Kingdom–(Newsfile Corp. – November 21, 2024) – Gorilla Technology Group Inc. (NASDAQ: GRRR) (“Gorilla” or the “Company”) is pleased to invite investors to a webinar on December 12, 2024, at 4:15 p.m. ET. The exclusive event, hosted by RedChip Companies, will feature Gorilla Technology’s Chairman and CEO, Jay Chandan, and interim-CFO, Bruce Bower. Attendees will gain insight into the Company’s position as a leader in delivering transformative, AI-powered solutions that drive large-scale digital transformation for smart and safe cities. 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W hen MSNBC’s morning hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced to their viewers last week that they had paid a visit to Donald Trump at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago they must have suspected there would be a reaction. The married co-hosts on the liberal news network made hay for years lambasting Trump, especially in the run-up to the presidential election. Now, in the wake of his victory, they told their viewers they were seeking to reset communications with the man they had warned only a few weeks ago was set to bring fascism to America. “Joe and I realized it’s time to do something different,’ Brzezinski told Morning Joe viewers on Monday. “That starts with not only talking about Donald Trump but also talking with him.” Their reward? An online barn-burning by their critics online and a fall in viewer numbers for a show – and a network – already struggling in a rapidly declining US cable news sector. The following morning, broadcast viewing figures for the network plummeted 38%, according to Nielsen Media Research. Yet Scarborough and Brzezinski’s about-face is just one data point in the US media landscape that shows that some core elements of the press in America may be recalibrating its approach to how it covers the second Trump administration and where the all-in oppositional attitude that defined much of the press in his first term is in retreat. Yet the moves come after an election campaign in which Trump frequently attacked the media and dubbed them “enemies of the people”. It comes as his allies have threatened to curb the press and attack their media critics. They have also already launched a wave of multibillion-dollar lawsuits against a host of media companies for their coverage that they often baselessly claim to be bias, such as Trump’s allegation that CBS misleadingly edited an interview with Kamala Harris. Certainly those threats seemed to be at play with MSNBC , which is now also facing an uncertain future as the network is being spun off by its corporate parent, Comcast. A subsequent sale would come under the purview of Trump-appointed regulators. According to Puck News, the couple’s visit to Trump’s tropical paradise was because Scarborough was said to be “petrified” that the president-elect’s Department of Justice would go after him. “That’s what this was about,” a source told the news site about the motive. “It has nothing to do with ratings or Comcast. It’s all about fear of retribution and investigation.” “It was about access and power,” said Jeff Jarvis, a media writer. “But this visit didn’t do anything for access, and they didn’t come back with anything journalistic. They were willing to throw the reputation of the show, their reputations and the reputation of the network over for their own personal fears.” But MSNBC is not alone in facing tough choices. The US media are facing numerous issues: fears over what Trump might do, complex business decisions and interests faced by their corporate owners, and also an understanding that the president-elect won the popular vote, showing that their audiences exist beyond the safe havens of Trump criticism. But these are choppy waters. The Washington Post, famed for bringing down Richard Nixon, has been the focus of controversy under its billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos , and the British journalist, Will Lewis, he has tasked with running the once-storied brand. The Washington Post lost 250,000 subscribers after it declined to make a presidential endorsement. Bezos defended the decision , triggering suspicion that Amazon’s role as a defense industry data cloud contractor had played a part. But since Trump won, Lewis has not changed tack and a longstanding and widely respected political editor at the paper was reportedly removed from his job last week. The Post’s controversy has played at the same time as the Los Angeles Times made a similar call to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris , also triggering widespread dismay in the newsroom and a questioning of how critical of Trump the newspaper would continue to be. The Los Angeles Times’ billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, framed the matter as an attempt at neutrality, though his activist daughter Nika Soon-Shiong also said the decision was informed by Harris’s continued support for Israel as it wars in Gaza – which he later confirmed in an internal email . After years of anti-Trump coverage under Jeff Zucker, CNN is also effecting course-correction. Last week, the cable news giant’s Dana Bash said it was unclear whether a group of men carrying swastika flags marching in Columbus, Ohio, belonged to the far right or far left. “A group of neo-Nazis paraded through that city wearing, waving swastikas, covering their faces,” Bash said. “We don’t know what side of the aisle this comes from. I mean, typically neo-Nazis are from the far right.” The statement immediately attracted ridicule for its seemingly bizarre attempt at neutrality. Sign up to The Stakes — Presidential Transition We will guide you through the aftermath of the US election and the transition to a Trump presidency after newsletter promotion Some at the New York Times, too, are offering a more ameliorated tone than under the first Trump administration , even as the paper has continued to break stories on Trump’s preparations to return to power. The columnist David Brooks advocated soon after the election that Trump is a “sower of chaos, not fascism”, adding: “In chaos there’s opportunity for a new society and a new response to the Trumpian political, economic and psychological assault.” It is certainly a complex challenge. The media’s symbiotic relationship with Trump was both nurturing and self-destructive the first time around as readerships boomed, but a significant chunk of the population – the chunk that delivered Trump back into the White House – became even more hostile to the mainstream media and embraced the idea it was “fake news”. The news industry in the US, with a few exceptions, is on life support as audiences fracture and social media traffic referrals dry up. Social media is more trusted by the public, and the press is now facing a second hostile Trump administration with diminished resources. But would a more restrained approach work? Would it attract readers previously hostile to the media, and would it blunt any attacks from the Trump administration? Some are skeptical. “You’re trying to pursue readers you’ll never have and in the process pissing off the readers you do have,” Jarvis, the media writer, said of outlets playing it safe on Trump. “That’s the paradox – mass media still believes in the mass media. The challenge for journalism now is for people to feel heard and a separation from the power structures of politics and money.” The only network firmly in a good place appears to be rightwing Fox News , which dominated 24-hour news broadcasting through the election cycle and seems confident of its identity as America returns to life under a Trump presidency. Fox News finished the week of 11-17 November with its highest share of the cable news audience in the network’s 28-year history across multiple categories, while MSNBC saw its lowest-rated week in quarter of a century. For some observers, all this makes for worrying times ahead as America confronts a president with openly autocratic sympathies and a radical rightwing agenda. “The press is going to find itself in an existential battle for its own integrity if it does not decide to confront and challenge Trump top to bottom. There’s no way a truly free press can be neutral about lies and broken civic norms and survive,” said Jim Sleeper, author and retired lecturer in political science at Yale University. “If the populace has decided to trade in its freedom and rights for stability and security that authoritarians always promise, then the press has to make a choice and decide that honest journalists are dissidents.”
TikTok future uncertainKaizer Chiefs talisman Ranga Chivaviro is making headlines against the backdrop of his birthday. The star recently turned a year older, and fans quickly flooded their social media feeds with warm birthday wishes for the Limpopo-born forward. KAIZER CHIEFS STAR RANGA CHIVAVIRO’S AGE REVEALED Taking to social media, the Soweto giants also penned a heartfelt birthday post for the star. Kaizer Chiefs posted, ”Happy birthday Ranga! We hope that you will have an amazing day!” Back home Ranga Chivaviro was surprised with a new PlayStation by his wife. In a now-viral clip, his wife recorded, the star smiled as he arrived home to a new console. Against the backdrop of his birthday, the publication has since connected the dots about his age, which he has kept under wraps for years. Like those before him, he has kept his private life under wraps, leaving many to guess even about his age. The 32-year-old Kaizer Chiefs star was born on 21 November 1992 in Limpopo. MZASI REACTS : PAST HIS PRIME? Against the posts, fans quickly flooded his comments with warm birthday wishes. However, some were quick to implicate Ranga Chivaviro’s stint with Amakhosi in the mix. The former Marumo Gallants star has failed to impress as many thought he would. He has been receiving backlash from fans who often boo him, but Kaizer Chiefs coach Nabi has urged fans to be patient not only with Chivaviro but rest of the team. Despite looking sharp and fit, fans were convinced he had passed his prime. Others seemingly urged Kaizer Chiefs to get rid of Chivaviro, who has struggled on goal. Some made it known he had passed his prime. In August, PSL legend Collins Mbesuma made it known that Ranga Chivaviro was not Kaizer Chiefs material. Mbesuma questioned whether Chivaviro is the calibre of striker needed at the Chiefs during his interview on Josta Dladla’s YouTube channel, Izinja ze Game. Little is known about his youth career; however, he made his senior debut with Witbank Spurs in 2013. After three seasons, he left the club and made over 30 appearances for Cape Town All-Stars in 2016. However, Ranga Chivaviro switched the floor to Ubuntu Cape Town that same year just after ten appearances with All-Stars. The Kaizer Chiefs star went on to star for Baroka. He joined the club in 2018 but was later loaned to TS Sporting. From Baroka, he joined Trepca in ‘89 before settling for Venda FA. In 2022 Ranga Chivaviro joined Marumo Gallants. After a season with the club, he joined Kaizer Chiefs. Let us know by clicking on the comment tab below this article or by emailing info@thesouthafrican.com or sending a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. You can also follow @TheSAnews on X and The South African on Facebook for the latest news.