By The Defender Staff

Exclusive: Deleted Tweets Reveal New Surgeon General Pick Criticized Trump and RFK Jr. Health Policies

CNN reported:

Just two months before she was selected as President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Dr. Nicole Saphier suggested the administration was hiding that measles was spreading widely enough in the United States for the country to lose its “elimination” status until after the midterm elections. “Seems like they may not want to admit the U.S. Measles elimination status is is (sic) gone until after midterm elections,” Saphier wrote in March.

That post has since been deleted, along with numerous others from Saphier’s X account posted in 2025 and 2026 criticizing the administration’s health policies and attacking Trump personally.

Deleted social media posts reviewed by CNN’s KFile show the then-Fox News medical contributor repeatedly broke publicly with Trump and US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on some of the administration’s most politically sensitive health issues, including vaccines and autism. She also raised questions surrounding Trump’s own health.

Why 41 Percent of Americans Say They Identify With the MAHA Movement

The Washington Post reported:

While the Make America Healthy Again movement has largely forged its identity around food, vaccines and pesticides, it turns out that the cost of health care is by far the top issue for voters who say they support the movement. The poll findings released Wednesday by health policy research and news organization KFF highlight how affordability is a chief concern this year for Americans across the political spectrum.

The poll also shed new light on why 41 percent of Americans identify with the MAHA movement — 22 percent “strongly” — by asking respondents to describe the main reason for supporting it. The biggest reasons included general hopes for a healthier country (19 percent), removing or regulating harmful substances in food (15 percent) and improving nutritional habits and reducing obesity rates (7 percent mentioned each).

Only 4 percent mentioned vaccines or “medical choice,” while few mentioned President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Rand Paul Pushes for Fauci Indictment Before Statute of Limitations Expires

The Hill reported:

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday called for Anthony Fauci, former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to be indicted for what the senator claimed was his lying under oath about gain-of-function research. “6 days from now, on May 11th, the statute of limitations expires on the possibility of indicting Anthony Fauci for denying under oath that he funded gain-of-function research involving bat coronaviruses in Wuhan, the origin city of the pandemic,” Paul wrote on social media.

Paul was referencing a May 11, 2021, hearing held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions in which he and Fauci got into one of several heated exchanges the two would have in the last few years of Fauci’s tenure.

During the hearing, Fauci repeatedly denied favoring and funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China. Paul supports the lab-leak theory of the origins of COVID-19, alleging the virus originated from an escaped, artificially enhanced virus from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. He has sought to center blame on Fauci as part of this theory.

Rep. Jim Mcgovern Was 1 of 35 House Votes Against Making Rotisserie Chicken Snap-Eligible. Here’s Why.

Boston.com reported:

U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern was the only Massachusetts Democrat in the House to vote against an amendment to extend SNAP benefits to cover hot rotisserie chicken, which the House passed along with the larger farm bill last week. McGovern, who represents Worcester, was one of 35 no votes — 12 of which were from Democrats — on the amendment, which passed with 384 yes votes to add hot rotisserie chicken as an eligible item to be purchased with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

Every other member of the Massachusetts delegation in the House of Representatives voted to approve the amendment. Currently, households cannot use SNAP benefits to buy “foods that are hot at the point of sale.” “America’s best (and delicious) affordability play is Costco’s $4.99 rotisserie chicken,” said Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, one of the sponsors of the bill, per AP. “It’s one of my family’s favorites… SNAP funds would be well spent to feed our nation’s families who need it.”

In response to requests for comment, McGovern’s office referred to a statement about the vote posted on social media Tuesday in which he said Republicans “advanced a single-industry carve-out, pushed by lobbyists, for big grocers and billionaire food conglomerates.”

FDA Authorizes Fruit-Flavored Vapes for Adults

U.S. News & World Report reported:

For the first time ever, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the sale of fruit-flavored e-cigarettes (“vapes”) for adults 21 and over. The move comes amid news of President Donald Trump reportedly pressing FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary to approve flavored vapes. Trump had previously vowed to “save” vaping, according to The Washington Post.

The authorization is a shift from years of aggressive regulation against flavored vapes after the FDA rejected marketing approvals for more than 1 million fruit-, candy- and dessert-flavored products, according to The Post. The Supreme Court had also unanimously backed the agency in enforcing such regulations last April. Advocates are concerned about how this change could impact youth.

“Today’s decision puts at risk the progress our nation has made in reducing youth e-cigarette use,” Yolonda C. Richardson, president and CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said in a statement. “It conflicts with overwhelming scientific evidence and the FDA’s own repeated conclusions that flavors pose a substantial risk to young people.”

EPA Move Risks Politicizing Chemical Risk Assessments, Ex-Official Says

Chemical & Engineering News reported:

According to a leaked internal memo from US Environmental Protection Agency deputy administrator David Fotouhi, the agency is changing the way it conducts chemical risk assessments to be consistent with President Donald J. Trump’s May 23, 2025, executive order “Restoring Gold Standard Science.” But critics say the proposed process is inefficient and inconsistent, and it opens the door for direct political interference with scientific findings.

In the memo, dated April 27, Fotouhi says the EPA will no longer use the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program to create hazard and dose-response assessments for chemicals. Going forward, the EPA policy offices, such as the Office of Air and Radiation, the Office of Water, and the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, will be responsible for all parts of the chemical-risk-assessment process.

Fotouhi cites both internal and external complaints about overly conservative assessments, a need for continuity, and not adequately considering important scientific issues as reasons to end the IRIS program. He directs employees to re-review chemical assessments that used IRIS and says a “disclaimer” will be added to the IRIS website saying the values “are not necessarily intended for use as regulatory levels.”

The post Exclusive: Deleted Tweets Reveal New Surgeon General Pick Criticized Trump and RFK Jr. Health Policies + More appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More