New York Times: “The White House plans to delay naming a candidate to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency that has been roiled by a string of high-level departures and has had three different leaders since President Trump returned to the White House, according to people familiar with the situation.”

“Federal law imposes a 210-day limit on those filling Senate-confirmed positions in an acting capacity. If Mr. Trump does not nominate a permanent director by midnight on Wednesday, the agency will be officially leaderless.”

“The administration faces a formidable challenge in finding a nominee who aligns with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again agenda while avoiding his unpopular stance on vaccines.”

Associated Press: “Wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means’ nomination to be U.S. surgeon general is stalled a month after senators of both major political parties grilled her on vaccines and other health topics during a tense confirmation hearing, deepening doubts about her ability to secure the votes she needs for the role.”

Washington Post: “The nascent Make America Healthy Again movement got one of its biggest wins last spring: Casey Means was selected to be the nation’s top doctor.”

“But more than 10 months later, the controversial surgeon general pick has yet to assume the position advising Americans on how to improve their health. Her nomination has stalled as some Republicans question her stance on vaccines, her medical credentials and her pushes against the medical establishment.”

ProPublica: “Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who founded an antivaccine group and once likened the immunization of children to a holocaust, is transforming a government that long championed the lifesaving benefits of shots into one that spreads doubts about their safety here and abroad.”

“Kennedy is also considering changes that could prompt the few companies that make vaccines for American kids to abandon the U.S. market, leaving parents who want the shots unable to get them.”

“In a severe blow to the Trump administration’s health agenda, a federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked the government from implementing a series of decisions on vaccines made over the last year by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” the New York Times reports.

“The ruling also reversed, at least for the time being, all decisions made by the panelists that Mr. Kennedy appointed to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations on which vaccines Americans should take. The court decision will prevent the committee from meeting later this week, as it was scheduled to do.”

“The White House is more tightly controlling the messaging and policies—including around vaccines—coming from the Department of Health and Human Services ahead of the midterm elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Aides close to President Trump decided to take a more active role in managing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. department in the face of polling that shows his vaccine moves are unpopular.”

“Although Trump brought Kennedy into his administration with the promise that the vaccine skeptic and ultraprocessed-food critic could ‘go wild on health,’ administration officials grew increasingly frustrated with what they viewed as foul-ups inside Kennedy’s department… Aides close to Trump grew worried that perceived disorganization and a focus on vaccines could damage the president’s party in November.”

“The MIT professor who has been appointed by Robert F Kennedy Jr to review the safety of Covid-19 vaccines has failed to meet basic scientific standards in his own research on the topic, according to more than a dozen scientists and public health experts,” The Guardian reports.

“Although Obamacare sign-ups have fallen significantly this year over skyrocketing monthly premiums, Dr. Mehmet Oz believes enrollment is still too high,” NBC News reports.

“Oz said some people enrolled in ACA plans should not be there and expects enrollment to fall further — to around 19 million.”

Said Oz: “In fact, the fact that we have 23 million makes me think we have too many participants in the ACA. It’s too high of a number.”

The Guardian: “More than 100 substances widely used in common U.S. foods, supplements and beverages underwent no health and safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration, a new analysis of federal records finds.”

“Dr. Vinay Prasad, a polarizing figure at the Food and Drug Administration who oversaw vaccines, is leaving the agency at the end of April,” the New York Times reports.

“The U.S. has recorded more than 1,100 measles cases so far this year, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” CNN reports.

“It’s a troubling milestone that has many in public health bracing for the worst.”

About two-thirds of Americans who don’t own their own home say they do not think they will be able to afford to buy a home in the foreseeable future, and nearly half of Americans say they have “a lot” or “some” debt, an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll finds.

And more than half of Americans say health care, taking a weeklong vacation or buying a new car is “unaffordable.”

A bipartisan majority of Americans believe vaccines are safe and that children should receive them to attend school, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, illustrating the challenges President Trump’s administration faces to win broad support for upending decades of health policy.

Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, told senators on Wednesday that “anti-vaccine rhetoric has never been part of my message,” as she deflected questions about birth control, pesticides, vaccines, her finances and her use of a psychedelic drug, the New York Times reports.

Katherine Wu: “For years, the worst outcomes of measles were all but unknown in the U.S. Now they look inevitable.”

Politico: “President Donald Trump’s Wednesday night executive order promoting production of a widely used herbicide is threatening to blow up a coalition that played a key role in his 2024 election victory.”

Make America Healthy Again activists brought into the Republican fold by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are furious over Trump’s move to ensure adequate supplies of the herbicide glyphosate, a prime target of their efforts to crack down on toxic chemicals that they argue are killing Americans.”

“’I’m witnessing the bottom falling out on MAHA,’ MAHA influencer Kelly Ryerson, who goes by the moniker ‘Glyphosate Girl’ online, said of watching the reaction on X. ‘People came along on MAHA because of pesticides and foods. It wasn’t because of vaccines.’”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has reversed course and will review a new mRNA flu vaccine from Moderna, CNN reports.

New York Times: “When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was picked in November 2024 to become the next health secretary, public health experts worried that the longtime vaccine skeptic would wreak havoc on the fragile business of vaccine development.”

“Those fears are beginning to come true, according to executives and investors involved with companies that develop and sell vaccines and the technology that is best known for the Covid vaccines.”