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Paging Reality: Unpacking the Week’s Wildest Health Claims · Paging America

0:15
SPEAKER_02: Hi, everyone.
0:15
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to Paging America,
0:17
SPEAKER_02: where we explore the power,
0:18
SPEAKER_02: profit,
0:19
SPEAKER_02: and politics shaping American health care and what you can do about it.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Miles Baker.
0:24
And today,
0:24
filling in for Dr.
0:25
Rob Davidson,
0:26
we are delighted to be joined by Dr.
0:28
Annie Andrews.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: Dr. Andrews is a South Carolina-based pediatrician.
0:33
She spent over two decades working in children's hospitals and
0:36
is an outspoken
0:37
SPEAKER_02: advocate for her patients.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: She's also running as a Democratic candidate for U.S.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: Senate against Lindsey Graham.
0:42
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the pod, Dr. Andrews.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for being here.
0:45
SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
1:05
SPEAKER_03: I love that.
1:05
SPEAKER_03: Let's start with the positive news.
1:07
SPEAKER_03: The race is going really, really well.
1:09
We've raised over $2.6 million since I got in the race about
1:12
three and a half
1:13
SPEAKER_03: months ago,
1:13
SPEAKER_03: traveling all across the state,
1:15
SPEAKER_03: filling up rooms,
1:16
SPEAKER_03: standing room only.
1:17
SPEAKER_03: People are looking for something to get excited about.
1:20
There has never been a more important time for physicians and
1:22
other health care
1:23
SPEAKER_03: providers to run.
1:24
And I think the enthusiasm I'm seeing all across the state
1:27
speaks exactly to that.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: There is hope out there.
1:30
More doctors need to step up and run for office and address all
1:33
of the problems
1:34
SPEAKER_03: we're about to talk about.
1:35
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
1:36
Do we think Lindsey Graham is going to show any courage anytime
1:40
soon in sort of the
1:41
SPEAKER_02: attacks on health care?
1:44
SPEAKER_02: He's been like conspicuously silent on Trump stuff recently.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: But have we seen any glimmers of hope that by having a tougher race,
1:51
SPEAKER_02: he's going to grow a backbone?
1:53
SPEAKER_03: No, unfortunately not.
1:55
SPEAKER_03: His most recent social media post is a clip from him on Fox News saying,
1:59
SPEAKER_03: Trump 2028,
2:00
SPEAKER_03: I don't want this to end.
2:02
SPEAKER_03: So no, no signs of the old Lindsey Graham coming back.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: Spooky.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: All right.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: That's too bad for all of us.
2:09
SPEAKER_02: Okay,
2:10
SPEAKER_02: so folks,
2:11
SPEAKER_02: listeners,
2:12
SPEAKER_02: in today's episode,
2:12
SPEAKER_02: we're going to cover the absolutely crazy Tylenol presser.
2:15
We have some big news that is going undercovered around what
2:19
the FDA is up to with Mifepristone.
2:20
We're going to talk a little bit about the ASAP meeting like we
2:22
said we were going to last week.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: All right,
2:24
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
2:25
SPEAKER_02: Andrews,
2:25
SPEAKER_02: did you see the presser that they did,
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
2:28
SPEAKER_02: Oz,
2:28
SPEAKER_02: RFK,
2:29
SPEAKER_02: and Trump on Tylenol?
2:30
SPEAKER_03: I sure did, and my eyes and ears still hurt from all of that nonsense.
2:35
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we play the clip of how Trump opened it up?
2:39
Effective immediately,
2:40
the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of
2:43
acetaminophen.
2:44
SPEAKER_01: Is that okay?
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Which is basically commonly known as Tylenol.
2:58
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: Pregnancy can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: All right.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: So that was billed as their big announcement.
3:14
They've been touting that they were going to find the cause of
3:17
autism all year,
3:18
SPEAKER_02: and they were going to do it by the end of September.
3:20
It was getting into the 20s in September,
3:22
so they had to come up with something.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: I got to tell you,
3:26
SPEAKER_02: if this was the big healthcare announcement,
3:28
SPEAKER_02: I would have learned how to say the word.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: I think...
3:31
It seems like maybe that was the first time you ever saw that
3:33
word was that day.
3:34
SPEAKER_02: What was your reaction to that?
3:35
SPEAKER_02: And if you have any insights,
3:37
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
3:37
SPEAKER_02: Andrews,
3:37
into sort of like how dangerous this is to be making this link
3:44
and doing it so
3:45
SPEAKER_02: conclusively or so like completely.
3:47
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
3:48
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, this isn't how science works.
3:51
SPEAKER_03: When RFK Jr.
3:52
SPEAKER_03: said we're going to know the cause of autism by September,
3:55
every serious scientific person and every reasonable human
3:58
being in this country
3:59
SPEAKER_03: knew that was total BS.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: That's not how science works.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: And,
4:04
SPEAKER_03: you know,
4:04
we saw this huge buildup where we were all feeling like they
4:07
were going to blame
4:07
SPEAKER_03: autism on vaccines,
4:08
SPEAKER_03: a link that has been disproven.
4:11
SPEAKER_03: Vaccines do not cause autism.
4:12
But I think they saw some polling and realized that most
4:15
Americans don't want them
4:16
SPEAKER_03: to continue to attack routine childhood immunizations.
4:19
SPEAKER_03: And so they went and pivoted to something.
4:21
It's almost like they just stuck their hand in a hat and pulled
4:24
out a card and the
4:24
SPEAKER_03: card said Tylenol.
4:26
SPEAKER_03: I totally agree with you.
4:27
SPEAKER_03: Acetaminophen was literally the topic of the press conference.
4:30
SPEAKER_03: He is the president of the United States.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: He should have practiced how to say that word.
4:35
Yeah.
4:36
SPEAKER_02: Got to do it.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: All right.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: My God, am I the reason my child has autism?
4:59
SPEAKER_03: Is it because I had that headache and I took Tylenol?
5:01
SPEAKER_03: And that is just so deeply unfair.
5:03
SPEAKER_03: This is not based in any scientific data whatsoever.
5:06
It is so irresponsible and will cause real harm psychologically
5:11
and otherwise.
5:11
SPEAKER_02: It's so cruel to parents who have children with autism who...
5:17
SPEAKER_02: Even if they know that there's not a link to Tylenol,
5:19
SPEAKER_02: just to even cast a shadow of a doubt,
5:22
SPEAKER_02: right?
5:24
SPEAKER_02: And it's so unnecessary to do, just to score political points.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: The cruelty knows no bounds.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: He went on.
5:31
SPEAKER_02: So,
5:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean,
5:32
SPEAKER_02: a lot of people have talked about the Tylenol oppressor,
5:34
so I'm not sure how much more we can add besides just noting
5:37
that this was like...
5:39
SPEAKER_02: This was an all time crazy presser for the our whole team.
5:42
SPEAKER_02: We were we were we have signal chains.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: We talk about the health care announcements and everyone is like,
5:47
SPEAKER_02: I can't believe I'm still surprised sometimes.
5:49
I know,
5:49
you know,
5:50
so many years into this and he still managed to shock us with
5:54
this one.
5:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_03: I do think one other point I want to make about this is the reason,
6:00
SPEAKER_03: you know,
6:00
SPEAKER_03: people are pulling up that old tweet from Tylenol that says,
6:03
SPEAKER_03: we don't recommend you take Tylenol in pregnancy,
6:05
SPEAKER_03: taking it totally out of context.
6:07
But if you drill down into the roots of that statement and the
6:10
statement that a lot
6:11
SPEAKER_03: of pharmaceutical companies make about their products in pregnant women,
6:14
it traces back to the fact that it wasn't until 1993 that this
6:18
country even
6:19
SPEAKER_03: required women to be included in federally funded clinical trials.
6:23
SPEAKER_03: So we have...
6:25
SPEAKER_03: disinvested in women's health for decades.
6:28
SPEAKER_03: This is a policy choice.
6:29
SPEAKER_03: And that's just regular women, not pregnant women.
6:32
Pregnant women have been excluded from clinical trials for a
6:35
really long time,
6:37
SPEAKER_03: just like children have.
6:38
There are so many things I prescribe as a pediatrician that are
6:42
off-label because
6:43
SPEAKER_03: the FDA has not approved them for use in pediatric patients.
6:46
SPEAKER_03: That doesn't mean what I'm doing is unsafe.
6:48
SPEAKER_03: That just means we have not invested
6:50
SPEAKER_03: In the clinical trials,
6:51
we have decades of clinical experience to show us what is safe
6:55
and not safe.
6:56
But this is a real interesting way for America to find out that
6:59
our elected
7:01
SPEAKER_03: officials,
7:01
SPEAKER_03: our policy does not support investigating women's health.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: That's a great point.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:07
Maybe there can be a teaching moment or a bit of a history
7:10
lesson out of this if we
7:11
SPEAKER_02: could find a silver lining.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: So the Tylenol thing was crazy.
7:19
SPEAKER_02: I actually think when he started riffing,
7:21
SPEAKER_02: he started doing the weave or whatever he says he does.
7:24
SPEAKER_02: And he gets into vaccines.
7:27
And maybe we can play that clip because he really said some
7:30
crazy things about vaccines.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Break up your visits to the doctors.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Break them up.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Do it in five if you can.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, it's inconvenient.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: It's inconvenient.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're going to have to go back another year later.
7:42
You're going to go back each year for four years,
7:45
five years,
7:46
three years.
7:46
SPEAKER_01: Just break it up.
7:48
SPEAKER_01: Break it up because it's too much liquid.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: Too many different things are going into that baby at too big a number.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: Andrews,
8:01
I don't like playing extended clips of Donald Trump's voice on
8:04
this podcast,
8:05
but that him telling people to not get vaccines because it's
8:09
too much liquid has to
8:10
SPEAKER_02: be the most incurious sentence I have ever heard in my life.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just I'm just wondering, like, how do you react to that?
8:21
SPEAKER_03: I would bet a lot of money on Donald Trump never having stepped foot in a
8:25
SPEAKER_03: pediatrician's office for any of his children's well-child checks.
8:28
I'm sure he has never seen the administration of vaccines in
8:32
his own children.
8:33
He went on to try to name the three things that are in the MMR,
8:37
and he forgot the third one.
8:38
SPEAKER_03: He forgot Rubella, right?
8:40
SPEAKER_03: I mean,
8:40
SPEAKER_03: it's just like,
8:41
SPEAKER_03: I mean,
8:41
SPEAKER_03: it's like,
8:42
SPEAKER_03: I could ask my nine-year-old to talk about vaccines,
8:45
and she would have more informative things to say than the
8:47
president of the United
8:48
SPEAKER_03: States.
8:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
8:50
For the non-physicians that listen to the healthcare advocates
8:53
who are not doctors,
8:53
can you remind us the reason why we combine vaccines together
8:57
and try to cut down
8:58
SPEAKER_02: on the number of visits to the doctor's office that parents have to do?
9:02
SPEAKER_03: Because we have a problem with health care access in this country.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you've heard,
9:06
SPEAKER_03: but when you take your child to a well-child check,
9:08
SPEAKER_03: you have to miss work.
9:09
SPEAKER_03: Your child has to miss school.
9:11
SPEAKER_03: You have to make the appointment.
9:12
SPEAKER_03: You have to get transportation.
9:13
SPEAKER_03: You have to show up.
9:14
We try to deliver care as efficiently as possible,
9:17
as policy allows in this country.
9:19
SPEAKER_03: And he suggests that you should get,
9:20
SPEAKER_03: like,
9:21
SPEAKER_03: the M part when you're three and the second M part when you're four.
9:24
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
9:24
Does he not know that children go to the doctor for well-child
9:27
checks every year already?
9:29
SPEAKER_03: And the current vaccine schedule has been studied.
9:31
SPEAKER_03: It is known to be safe and effective.
9:33
SPEAKER_03: Combined vaccines are a godsend for parents,
9:37
SPEAKER_03: for children and for pediatricians and pediatric nurses.
9:40
SPEAKER_03: It makes the entire process more efficient.
9:42
SPEAKER_03: It is safe on the immune system.
9:44
SPEAKER_03: And it is just absurd that he wants to travel back in time and,
9:49
SPEAKER_03: you know,
9:49
SPEAKER_03: separate all of these vaccines.
9:51
The last piece of this,
9:52
and it seems to—this is the most—the whole thing was puzzling,
9:55
right?
9:56
SPEAKER_02: Like, none of it makes any sense.
9:58
The FDA announced that it would change Leukovorin's label to
10:02
reflect a potential
10:03
SPEAKER_02: benefit to reducing autism symptoms.
10:06
I want to read you a statement made by the chief science
10:13
officer of the Autism
10:14
SPEAKER_02: Science Foundation.
10:15
SPEAKER_02: Alicia Halliday said,
10:17
it's not like scientists have just been staring at their belly
10:20
buttons for 20
10:20
SPEAKER_02: years,
10:21
SPEAKER_02: not looking at treatments for autism.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: They have, but the standards have been very high to get approved.
10:26
SPEAKER_02: Her organization funds evidence-based autism research,
10:29
and they do not recommend lucavorn as a treatment and says more
10:33
studies are needed.
10:34
This is just as this,
10:35
this pattern of like finding strange,
10:39
it reminds me of Ivermectin.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:41
SPEAKER_02: Finding strange treatments and,
10:44
and pushing them out of now the highest levels of healthcare
10:48
and government.
10:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:49
The highest levels of HHS and these sort of fringe,
10:52
these fringe treatments.
10:53
What do you,
10:53
what do you make of them IDing lucavorin as,
10:56
as a potential autism treatment?
10:58
SPEAKER_03: I mean, again, it's just not how science works.
11:00
SPEAKER_03: It's distracting.
11:01
I saw a really interesting video on Instagram of a mom of an
11:04
autistic child who
11:05
SPEAKER_03: said,
11:05
SPEAKER_03: you know,
11:06
you think autistic parents haven't looked into every possible
11:09
remedy that has been
11:10
SPEAKER_03: suggested?
11:11
SPEAKER_03: Leucovorin is not new to us.
11:13
SPEAKER_03: This Tylenol, potential Tylenol link that has not been shown to be true—
11:17
SPEAKER_03: is not new to us.
11:18
SPEAKER_03: None of this is new.
11:19
They're up there behind that podium acting like they've
11:21
uncovered some great truth about autism.
11:24
SPEAKER_03: My understanding of leucovorin, two things.
11:26
SPEAKER_03: Importantly,
11:27
SPEAKER_03: I have not independently confirmed this,
11:28
SPEAKER_03: but my understanding is Dr.
11:30
SPEAKER_03: Oz has a financial interest in a company that sells leucovorin.
11:34
And the second thing is there are children with autism who have
11:37
been found to have
11:38
SPEAKER_03: folate deficiency.
11:39
SPEAKER_03: And leucovorin is related to the transport of folate in the brain
11:43
So there is some evidence to show an improvement of symptoms in
11:46
a subset of
11:47
SPEAKER_03: patients with autism.
11:48
SPEAKER_03: That has all been known.
11:50
SPEAKER_03: Parents of autistic children know that.
11:51
Pediatricians and developmental pediatricians who care for
11:54
autistic children know that.
11:55
SPEAKER_03: Nothing, they didn't uncover anything new.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: And it's distracting from the real serious scientists,
12:01
SPEAKER_03: the ones who aren't staring at their belly buttons,
12:03
SPEAKER_03: who are trying to actually identify the multifactorial causes of autism.
12:08
SPEAKER_03: You don't think pediatricians would like to find the cause of autism?
12:12
Autism is a complex disease that makes many children's lives
12:16
incredibly challenging
12:17
SPEAKER_03: in ways that they don't need to be challenging.
12:19
SPEAKER_03: It makes the provision of regular pediatric care incredibly challenging.
12:23
SPEAKER_03: Of course, we want to find the causes and the cures for autism.
12:27
But what is happening with this clown show at HHS is taking us
12:31
further from the
12:32
SPEAKER_03: answers than the truth.
12:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, exactly.
12:34
SPEAKER_02: All right.
12:35
SPEAKER_02: I want to pivot to a story that it started to get reported two days ago.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: It was principally reported in right-wing outlets at first.
12:42
And so we saw it in the Gateway Pundit and we saw it being
12:45
reported in sort of even
12:46
SPEAKER_02: more fringy right-wing outfits.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: And it was basically a letter that RFK Jr.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: sent to the attorneys general around the country.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: So I'm going to just tee this up.
12:55
So Kennedy and FDA Commissioner Marty McCary sent a letter to
12:59
22 Republican attorneys general.
13:01
SPEAKER_02: Apparently they didn't send it to the Democrats for some reason.
13:03
who had requested the FDA review of mifepristone safety and
13:07
said the FDA would
13:08
SPEAKER_02: conduct its own review of the evidence,
13:11
including real-world outcomes and evidence relating to the
13:14
safety and efficacy of
13:15
SPEAKER_02: the drug.
13:16
It is worth noting that we just marked 25th anniversary of the
13:20
FDA approving mifepristone.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: They conducted a review of mifepristone less than three years ago.
13:24
SPEAKER_02: RFK Jr.
13:25
's decision to re-review the drug for supposed safety concerns
13:29
is based on a sham study that
13:31
SPEAKER_02: That the Atlantic magazine calls a junk science paper from a Washington,
13:34
D.C.-based think tank focused on pushing back against the
13:38
extreme progressive
13:39
SPEAKER_02: agenda while building a consensus for conservatives.
13:42
That's the mission statement of the nonprofit that published
13:45
this,
13:45
not the science.
13:47
SPEAKER_02: The scientist that published it.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: For abortion rights advocates and people who value reproductive freedom,
13:52
SPEAKER_02: this is starting to look like the outlines of how they ban mefeprestone.
13:59
And it seems like it could be like a complete politicization of
14:04
the FDA approval
14:05
SPEAKER_02: process and weaponization of the FDA approval process.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
14:09
This is,
14:09
you know,
14:09
their next step in their war on women and their desire to
14:12
control women.
14:13
SPEAKER_03: I would love to see us,
14:14
SPEAKER_03: you know,
14:15
consider regulating men's health care in the way we're trying
14:18
to regulate women's
14:19
SPEAKER_03: health care in this country.
14:20
SPEAKER_03: I think it's really important for folks to understand,
14:22
SPEAKER_03: you know what's more dangerous than mifepristone?
14:25
SPEAKER_03: Pregnancy.
14:25
SPEAKER_03: More women die from pregnancy than die from mifepristone.
14:28
SPEAKER_03: Mifepristone is incredibly safe and effective,
14:31
SPEAKER_03: and it is also the standard of care for miscarriage treatment.
14:35
So if you're going to change anything about the way that
14:38
physicians can prescribe,
14:40
SPEAKER_03: that patients can get mifepristone,
14:42
SPEAKER_03: you are going to stand in the way of life-saving care for women who are
14:45
SPEAKER_03: experiencing miscarriage.
14:47
SPEAKER_03: And that is deeply dangerous.
14:49
SPEAKER_03: Now, I have a couple statistics for you.
14:50
SPEAKER_03: So the risk of death from mifepristone is 0.53 per 100,000.
14:53
SPEAKER_03: The risk of death from pregnancy is 18 per 100,000.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: So scales of difference of risk.
15:02
SPEAKER_03: Again,
15:02
these are non-scientific people who have a political agenda to
15:06
control women,
15:07
and they're interfering with the scientific process and the
15:10
provision of health
15:11
SPEAKER_03: care for women across this country.
15:12
SPEAKER_03: It is deeply dangerous.
15:14
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I'm not at all surprised to see this as their next step.
15:17
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
15:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it seems so scary.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: Because it seems like you could,
15:20
if they go after a full ban or if they just go after the
15:22
telemedicine piece,
15:24
you could end up with sort of like maternal health care deserts
15:27
where it's really
15:28
hard to get treated for a miscarriage in the American South and
15:32
some parts of the
15:32
SPEAKER_02: West.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: It just seems really troubling that they're headed this way.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: And also,
15:36
the thing that stresses me about it is that if you're doing
15:39
this with an FDA
15:41
SPEAKER_02: approval process,
15:42
SPEAKER_02: there's just like nothing left that is not politicized.
15:45
It's like everything must be part of the Republican Party or
15:50
everything must be in
15:51
SPEAKER_02: service of the political project as opposed to any other project,
15:55
SPEAKER_02: including delivering health care to people.
15:57
SPEAKER_03: Right.
15:58
SPEAKER_03: You know,
15:58
SPEAKER_03: I've experienced myself over the past several weeks seeing,
16:02
SPEAKER_03: you know,
16:02
SPEAKER_03: tweets or headlines about the CDC or from the CDC.
16:06
And it is really dystopian for me to have to be like,
16:09
wait,
16:09
is this real or is this not real?
16:11
SPEAKER_03: To live in America and not be able to trust our once lauded public health
16:15
SPEAKER_03: institutions,
16:16
because we do see them using every level of the federal
16:20
government to achieve their
16:21
SPEAKER_03: political goals.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: You know,
16:23
SPEAKER_03: I was like flashing the alarms about this years ago,
16:26
SPEAKER_03: about the injection of politics into science.
16:29
SPEAKER_03: And I know you all have been, too.
16:31
But there should be a wall there between politics and the
16:34
provision of health care
16:35
SPEAKER_03: and science,
16:36
SPEAKER_03: the scientific process,
16:37
just like there should be a wall between politics and our
16:40
judicial system.
16:41
SPEAKER_03: And if those walls fall,
16:42
SPEAKER_03: which we have seen them fall because of cowards who are leading politics,
16:45
SPEAKER_03: Our health,
16:46
our nation's health care systems and because of cowards in the
16:48
judicial system,
16:49
SPEAKER_03: we're seeing an erosion of what should be these strong walls.
16:53
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
16:54
SPEAKER_03: Not America anymore.
16:55
SPEAKER_03: We cannot you know, it's not the same society we had before.
16:59
SPEAKER_03: And it is just as a scientist and a physician,
17:01
SPEAKER_03: it is is deeply disturbing and it will harm real patients.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: It seems hard to figure out how we build back from that.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: On the same topic of sort of the politicization of everything.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: So when we recorded this show last week,
17:14
SPEAKER_02: we had seen the first day of the ASIP meeting,
17:16
SPEAKER_02: and it was chaos.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: We got to the second day of the ACIP meeting.
17:24
So on Thursday and Friday last week,
17:26
Kennedy's newly stocked ACIP met for the very first time.
17:29
SPEAKER_02: The public meeting was nothing short of like a total clown show.
17:32
SPEAKER_02: They met to consider the recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines,
17:35
SPEAKER_02: MMRV vaccine and the childhood schedule and the hepatitis B vaccine.
17:40
SPEAKER_02: The first day they voted one way on two vaccines.
17:43
SPEAKER_02: The next day they changed their minds.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: So they were kind of like toggling back and forth.
17:48
SPEAKER_02: The chair, Kulldorf, acknowledged their inexperience this way.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: There is one thing, though, in which we are rookies.
17:57
And with one exception,
17:59
this was either our first ACIP meeting or our second.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: And there are many technical issues that we might not grasp as of yet.
18:11
SPEAKER_02: OK, so this is this is Martin Kulldorff.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: I just want to.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: So he's the new chair of ACIP.
18:17
I'm going to just read a little background on Martin Kulldorff
18:19
because he's one of
18:20
these like villains that emerge out of nowhere in the Trump
18:24
administration.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: So in 2020,
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Kulldorff was the co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration,
18:29
which advocated lifting COVID-19 restrictions on lower risk
18:33
groups to develop herd
18:34
SPEAKER_02: immunity through infection before vaccines became available.
18:38
while promoting the fringe notion that vulnerable people could
18:41
be simultaneously
18:42
SPEAKER_02: protected from the virus.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: The declaration was widely rejected.
18:45
SPEAKER_02: Basically, everyone said it was garbage.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: And Francis S. Collins, NIH director, called him a fringe epidemiologist.
18:53
If we could just put his picture up,
18:54
because he also happens to look like a Bond villain.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: Of course he does.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:02
He's like he's doing things like a Bond villain and he looks
19:05
like a Bond villain.
19:06
But this this all comes this sort of like comes back to this
19:08
idea of like the
19:09
politics and the political actors are linking into sort of like
19:13
every corner of
19:13
SPEAKER_02: this of the science infrastructure and the health care infrastructure.
19:16
So,
19:16
I mean,
19:17
they're they're doing our messaging for us by saying they're
19:19
rookies.
19:20
SPEAKER_03: They have no idea what they're doing yet.
19:22
SPEAKER_03: Here they are doing it confidently,
19:23
SPEAKER_03: you know,
19:24
SPEAKER_03: to have the confidence of these mediocre,
19:27
SPEAKER_03: unqualified men.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: You know, I can only I can only dream of being so overconfident.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
19:32
SPEAKER_03: But, you know, it's it's humiliating as a country.
19:34
SPEAKER_03: It's humiliating.
19:35
SPEAKER_03: And it's just,
19:36
SPEAKER_03: you know,
19:37
flies in the face of what I and every other physician and
19:40
scientist in this country
19:41
SPEAKER_03: dedicated our lives to do,
19:42
SPEAKER_03: which is to try to make Americans healthier.
19:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's troubling.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: So,
19:48
SPEAKER_02: okay,
19:48
SPEAKER_02: Dr.
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Andrews,
19:49
SPEAKER_02: while we have just a couple more minutes with you,
19:51
I'm hoping to talk about something that I suspect you care
19:54
quite a bit about,
19:55
SPEAKER_02: how Medicaid cuts and the vaccine confusion impact pediatric care.
19:58
SPEAKER_02: Just a little bit of tee up on this.
20:00
SPEAKER_02: In the 49 states and D.C.
20:02
SPEAKER_02: with complete enrollment data by age,
20:03
there are 36.4 million children and 39.9 million adults
20:08
enrolled in Medicaid.
20:09
SPEAKER_02: And Medicaid funds almost 1.5 million pregnant women annually.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: The coverage is critical for prenatal and postpartum care,
20:17
and it's been shown to have crucial links to safe and healthy
20:20
delivery and decrease
20:21
SPEAKER_02: in infant mortality.
20:22
So we're having this silly,
20:24
politicized conversation about childhood autism links to
20:28
Tylenol and
20:29
sort of fringe treatments or treatments that overpromise what
20:32
they can deliver.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: But at the same time,
20:35
SPEAKER_02: we're having these big step backs in Medicaid coverage,
20:38
SPEAKER_02: which so many people rely on.
20:40
I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the impact
20:42
on pediatric care you
20:43
SPEAKER_02: think is coming for the country.
20:45
SPEAKER_03: Medicaid has long suffered from a PR problem.
20:47
SPEAKER_03: People think of it as a handout for poor and lazy Americans.
20:51
SPEAKER_03: It could be nothing further from that.
20:53
SPEAKER_03: As a pediatrician,
20:54
the majority of patients I have cared for my entire career in
20:57
three different
20:58
SPEAKER_03: states have been funded through the Medicaid program.
21:00
SPEAKER_03: Medicaid is the largest insurer for children in this country.
21:04
SPEAKER_03: In my home state in South Carolina,
21:05
it funds nearly 50 percent of the births and six out of 10
21:09
nursing home beds.
21:10
Gutting this program is nothing short of cruel and will destroy
21:14
the backbone of
21:15
SPEAKER_03: children's health care all across this country.
21:17
All of our children's hospitals in all 50 states rely on
21:20
funding from the Medicaid
21:21
SPEAKER_03: program to keep the lights on.
21:23
I don't know how these hospitals are going to adjust their
21:26
budgets to account for
21:27
SPEAKER_03: this gutting of this program.
21:30
SPEAKER_03: As a current candidate,
21:31
it is my job to always point out that the reason they gutted
21:33
this program is not
21:34
because they're trying to achieve some level of fiscal
21:37
responsibility to balance
21:39
SPEAKER_03: the budget to lower the deficit.
21:40
SPEAKER_03: No,
21:41
they blew up the deficit while doing this just so they could
21:44
give handouts,
21:45
SPEAKER_03: tax cuts to their billionaire donors.
21:48
SPEAKER_03: And this will devastate children's health care.
21:50
There are five rural hospitals in my state that are at risk of
21:53
closing because of
21:54
SPEAKER_03: these budget cuts,
21:55
SPEAKER_03: these Medicaid budget cuts.
21:57
SPEAKER_03: Many nursing homes are also at risk of closing.
21:58
There's federally qualified health centers in my state that
22:01
have already announced
22:02
SPEAKER_03: they're going to close.
22:03
And I think what people need to understand is Medicaid cuts
22:05
don't just impact
22:06
SPEAKER_03: patients on the Medicaid program.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: It's the ER.
22:09
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
22:28
SPEAKER_03: Thankfully,
22:29
SPEAKER_03: as of today,
22:29
emergency departments are still legally required to offer care
22:32
to provide care to
22:33
SPEAKER_03: patients who show up at their doors.
22:35
SPEAKER_03: So they will receive care.
22:36
SPEAKER_03: The hospital will have to find a way to pay for that care.
22:38
And they're going to do that by raising the rates they charge
22:41
commercial insurance companies.
22:42
SPEAKER_03: So our premiums are going to go up.
22:44
SPEAKER_03: All the while,
22:45
SPEAKER_03: the ACA tax subsidies are going to expire,
22:48
SPEAKER_03: also rising the premium rates for those of us who are on the ACA.
22:51
So this is a disaster,
22:53
a five alarm fire for our nation's health care system.
22:55
SPEAKER_03: I don't know how we recover from this.
22:57
I don't know how the system can continue to function in light
23:00
of these enormous
23:01
SPEAKER_03: lubing budget cuts.
23:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, troubling.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: Well,
23:03
SPEAKER_02: you know,
23:04
SPEAKER_02: hopefully the fight that's happening in Congress that,
23:07
SPEAKER_02: you know,
23:07
it's our hope here that the Democrats in Congress really go to
23:10
the mat for the ACA
23:12
subsidies and extending that so we don't see even more folks
23:14
get pushed off the
23:15
SPEAKER_02: rules come next year.
23:16
SPEAKER_02: Dr. Annie Andrews, thank you so much for joining us today.
23:20
SPEAKER_02: I think that's coming to the end of our agenda here.
23:23
If people want to follow along and see what you're up to in
23:26
South Carolina,
23:27
SPEAKER_02: where can they find you?
23:28
SPEAKER_03: Dr. Annie Andrews dot com is where you can learn more about my campaign.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: But I'm on all the social media platforms.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: Please follow along.
23:35
Even though we are in very dark times,
23:37
I still like to have fun on social media.
23:39
SPEAKER_03: It's Annie Andrews MD.
23:41
SPEAKER_03: Please follow along and
23:42
Support me if you're interested in replacing Lindsey Graham
23:45
with a pediatrician.
23:46
SPEAKER_03: Great.
23:46
SPEAKER_02: Dr. Annie Andrews, thank you so much for joining us.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: All right, everybody, that does it for today.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: Stay on the lookout for any breaking news.
23:56
We may have some reactions over the weekend or early next week
23:59
if the news keeps
24:00
SPEAKER_02: coming at us as fast as it has been.
24:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to read us out.
24:02
Today's episode was written by Chris Savage,
24:04
Dr.
24:04
Rob Davidson,
24:05
and me,
24:05
Miles Baker.
24:06
It was produced by Amelia Dillon-Schneider,
24:08
Joel Bryson,
24:08
and Chris Savage.
24:09
SPEAKER_02: Editing by Darian Batigan.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Our music by Annette Somerset at Duneflower Productions.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: And if you enjoyed today's show,
24:14
SPEAKER_02: please subscribe and leave us a rating on YouTube,
24:15
SPEAKER_02: Spotify,
24:16
SPEAKER_02: Apple Podcasts,
24:17
SPEAKER_02: or wherever you listen.
24:18
SPEAKER_02: Physicians, your voice matters.
24:19
Join the fight for better American health care by becoming a
24:21
member of the
24:22
SPEAKER_02: Committee to Protect Health Care.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Visit www.committeetoprotect.org and we will see you next time.
24:27
SPEAKER_02: Cheers.