Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention soon to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide, the AP reports.

Kennedy also said he’s assembling a task force to focus on the issue.

Politico: “Two-thirds of swing voters… said they disapproved of slashing the safety-net health program as part of the GOP’s larger effort to pass a party-line package of tax cuts, beefed up border security and increased defense spending. …”

“These findings from Fabrizio Ward, the firm that conducted the survey, come as some Republicans say they oppose cuts to Medicaid to finance that package — but could have few other options than to do just that, given the massive deficit reduction targets lawmakers are facing.”

“The Trump administration on Friday rejected a Biden plan that would have required Medicare and Medicaid to cover obesity drugs and expanded access for millions of people,” the New York Times reports.

“Expanding coverage of the drugs would have cost the federal government billions of dollars.”

“The top vaccine regulator ousted by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the health secretary’s team has sought nonexistent data to justify antivaccine narratives and pushed to water down regulation of unproven stem-cell treatments,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

The measles outbreak in western Texas has hit 481 cases, with 59 newly identified infections confirmed over the last three days, ABC News reports.

On the heels of terminating 10,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services this week, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News some programs would soon be reinstated because they were mistakenly cut.

Said Kennedy: “We’re streamlining the agencies. We’re going to make it work for public health, make it work for the American people. In the course of that, there were a number of instances where studies that should have not have been cut were cut, and we’ve reinstated them. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan.”

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this as a huge mistake.”

— Former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, on LinkedIn.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said that he had decided to support the nomination of Dr. Mehmet Oz to lead Medicare and Medicaid because Dr. Oz told him that he would no longer support transgender care for minors and was “unequivocally pro-life,” the New York Times reports.

“Jeanne Marrazzo, Anthony Fauci’s successor at the National Institutes of Health, was placed on administrative leave starting on Tuesday and offered a reassignment to a different part of the US Department of Health and Human Services,” Bloomberg reports.

“The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood clinics that provide contraception, STI testing and other health services to low-income Americans,” Politico reports.

“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is making good on his promise to lay off thousands of employees across the government’s health care agencies,” Politico reports.

“Overnight, employees of the Department of Health and Human Services lost their jobs as part of a reduction in force that aims to cut 10,000 of the department’s approximately 80,000 workers.”

CNN: “Already, more than 11,000 additional TB patients are estimated to have died in the two months since almost all USAID funding froze on January 24.”

“TB infections are also expected to increase by 28-32% globally this year as a result of the cuts.”

Jonathan Chait: “The recent fifth anniversary of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic put the difference between the contemporary right and left on stark display. Liberals have engaged in searching self-reflection—on school closings, the lab-leak hypothesis, the political aftereffects, and other unanticipated lessons.”

“Conservatives have used the occasion to engage in a round of self-congratulations and taunting of the libs.”

“Texas and New Mexico health departments said on Friday that the number of measles cases in their states rose 20% since their last reports three days ago, as experts warn they expect the outbreak to further spread in coming weeks,” Reuters reports.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to put the governor of West Virginia on a diet, Axios reports.

Said Kennedy: “I’m going to put him on a really rigorous regime. We’re going to put him on a carnivore diet.”

He added: “Raise your hand if you want Gov. Morrisey to do a public weigh in once a month. Then when he’s lost 30 pounds, I’m going to come back to the state and do a celebration and a public weigh in with him.”

“President Trump has selected Sara Carter, a conservative journalist and Fox News contributor, as the nation’s next drug czar,” Stat reports.

“Carter’s selection comes as a surprise: Her background is not in drug policy, public health, or law enforcement, and she has never served in government.”

“The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official has been pushed out,“ the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Dr. Peter Marks, who played a key role in the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to develop Covid-19 vaccines, stepped down Friday. A Health and Human Services official gave him the choice Friday morning to resign or be fired.”

Said Marks: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.”

“The entire staff of the federal government’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off,” CBS News reports.

“The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions.”