“As President Trump sat with top donors at his New Jersey golf club this month, he made a private admission: He believed the coronavirus vaccine was one of the biggest accomplishments of his presidency, but he couldn’t bask in it,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Trump told donors—who were paying $1 million to be there—that he wished he could talk more about Operation Warp Speed, the government program he initiated that helped expedite the development of the vaccine…”

“Trump’s private comments illuminate the fraught politics around vaccines that the White House is confronting, which reached a boiling point Wednesday after the administration fired the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top officials quit their jobs in the midst of disagreements with Health and Human Services Secretary Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccine policy.”

“The nation’s top public health agency was left reeling and leaderless as the White House works to expel its handpicked director from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and three senior officials were escorted from its headquarters on Thursday,” the AP reports.

“The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research.”

“The chaos comes weeks before a key advisory committee, which Kennedy has reshaped with vaccine skeptics, is expected to meet to issue new recommendations on immunizations.”

The Guardian: CDC officials who quit in protest lead call to “get politics out of public health.”

Axios: How RFK Jr. could exploit the CDC’s power vacuum.

“The White House on Thursday selected a top deputy of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as acting head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after a clash over vaccine policy ended in the departure of several agency leaders,” the Washington Post reports.

“Rural hospitals are preparing to lose billions of dollars from President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending cut bill signed into law this summer,” the AP reports.

“Dozens, already on the brink, have warned they face the prospect of closure or reduced services because of the bill’s cuts to Medicaid, which is funded by federal and state governments and provides health care coverage for the poorest Americans.”