Walensky’s handover

Presented by PhRMA: Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy.

Jun 30, 2023 View in browser   By Daniel Payne Presented by Programming note: We’ll be off Monday and Tuesday for the Fourth of July but will be back in your inboxes on Wednesday. With Carmen Paun Driving the day Today is Rochelle Walensky's last day as CDC director. | Mary Altaffer/AP Photo PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE — It’s CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s last day at the agency, but she’s still thinking a lot about the agency’s work ahead. She’s been working to smooth potential bumps in a transition, in contact with her successor, Mandy Cohen — an Obama administration alum and formerly North Carolina’s top public health official. And she looks to stay in the game, telling Pulse she’s “eagerly wanting to champion health and public health from a new perch,” though she’s been vague about what that might be. Her reflection on her time at the agency — through the height of the government’s pandemic response — points to the challenges that remain, along with the CDC’s post-pandemic trajectory beyond this administration. Need for speed: Walensky told Pulse that she thinks the agency needs to be faster — in its response, data-gathering and research publishing. That means the CDC’s push for more authority from Congress is likely to continue. “If we are going to be a FEMA-like agency, where we respond in FEMA-like ways to infectious and noninfectious threats, then we need to have FEMA-like authorities,” Walensky said. “Our budgetary authorities, our workforce authorities and our data authorities limit us, tie our hands, in terms of our ability to be nimble.” Building the public’s trust: The CDC’s ability to be nimble in its communication will be key in securing credibility with the public, Walensky said. Getting science out faster, clearly communicating with public and health experts and getting ahead of misinformation are among the changes she holds up as lessons learned from the pandemic. What would she have done differently to build trust? “What I don’t think I articulated as loudly, and perhaps the public didn’t realize — although we as scientists do — is that science will change,” she said. “We underestimated bad actors who would take those moments and try and turn them for political gain.” History’s view: Walensky expects those looking back on her tenure to focus not just on Covid but also on the elevated level of disease hazards, including mpox, polio, fungal meningitis and malaria. “The density of public health threats that we have seen — in addition to Covid — have been ones that we have not previously seen,” she said. And Cohen, like Walensky, will face the historic challenge of trust in public health. “We all want the same thing. We all want people to live well, to live healthy,” Walensky said. “My advice [to Cohen] would really just be to focus on those areas where we agree — there are so many areas where we agree.” WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE, where we’re thankful for the holiday weekend. Make next week a little easier by sending a good tip my way today. Reach out at dpayne@politico.com. TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Alice Miranda Ollstein talks with Daniel Payne about his chat with CDC Rochelle Walensky, whose last day at the agency is today. They spoke about what's next for the future of the CDC and her successor. Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast   A message from PhRMA: Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) decide if medicines get covered and what you pay, regardless of what your doctor prescribes. They say they want lower prices, yet they often deny or limit coverage of lower-cost generics and biosimilars, instead covering medicines with higher prices so they make more money. What else are they hiding?   Providers The Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling have will affect medical schools and lead to less diversity among doctors. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo AFTER AFFIRMATIVE ACTION — Several provider groups came out against the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the use of affirmative action in higher education, saying it would hinder efforts to diversify the medical profession. The president of the American Medical Association, Jesse Ehrenfeld, said in a statement that the decision “undermines the health of our nation,” and progress recently made in health equity is at stake. Efforts to train a more diverse cohort of doctors have been in the spotlight in recent months, with lawmakers discussing the issue as they consider how to strengthen the health workforce more broadly. Some Democrats have linked the issue to disparities in health outcomes.   SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY.     In Congress HOUSE GOP GOES AFTER FAUCI AIDE — Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) is asking a top National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official to share personal emails and phone records, Carmen reports. The request from Wenstrup, the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, is part of the body’s Covid-19 origins investigation. In a letter to David Morens, a senior scientific adviser in the Office of the NIAID Director, which Anthony Fauci occupied until December, Wenstrup alleges that Morens intentionally used a personal email address to avoid the information contained in his messages from being requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The allegation comes from email exchanges the subcommittee obtained and shared with The Intercept. The NIAID did not respond to a request for comment from Morens. Why it matters: Morens is the second scientist targeted by House Republicans in their quest to investigate whether Covid-19 started due to a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and alleged involvement by Fauci and others official at the National Institutes of Health in funding gain-of-function research at the lab. At the Agencies The CDC is recommending new RSV vaccines, expected to be available in the fall, for adults 60 and older. | AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File USHERING IN RSV VACCINES — On Thursday, the CDC recommended respiratory syncytial virus vaccines for adults ages 60 and older, who will likely be able to get the shot before the end of the year. They’ll be the first vaccines of their kind to protect a group at high risk of the disease. Older adults see between 60,000 and 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths from RSV, according to the CDC. The recommendation comes as CDC advisers voted to approve the RSV shots after FDA approval. Public Health XYLAZINE DETECTIONS UP — The presence of Xylazine in overdoses from illegally manufactured fentanyl is up significantly in recent years, according to new CDC data. The powerful animal tranquilizer, known as Tranq, was found in 3 percent of toxicology samples in January 2019. In June 2022, it was found in 11 percent of illegally manufactured fentanyl deaths. The samples came from 20 states and Washington, D.C., and the rates varied by geographic location. Researchers emphasized the need for more research on the substance’s impact on humans and the opioid epidemic more broadly. VACCINE IMPACT — Even with lower vaccination rates, Covid shots had a larger impact in lower-income areas compared to their richer counterparts, according to a new report from the CDC. The introduction of vaccines lessened the gap in outcomes between communities, leading researchers to point to the need for improving access and reducing hesitancy, especially in lower-income areas.   A message from PhRMA:   Names in the News Caroline Ciccone is now president at Accountable.US. She previously was deputy assistant secretary for public affairs in health care at HHS and is an OPM, SBA and DNC alum. Lindsay Childress-Beatty was named chief of ethics at the American Psychological Association. She was previously the organization’s interim director. Maysa Akbar, the APA’s chief diversity officer, will get an additional title: chief of psychology in the public interest. Adam Boehler and Parth Mehrotra are joining Privia Health’s board. Will Sherrill is resigning from the board. America’s Essential Hospitals named its board’s new leadership.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     What We're Reading The Wall Street Journal reports on cancer patients who had their medications rationed. Reuters reports that the WHO’s cancer research group is expected to say aspartame is a possible carcinogen. The Washington Post reports on the state of Afghan hospitals under Taliban control.   A message from PhRMA: Middlemen say they want lower prices, yet they often deny or limit coverage of lower-cost generics and biosimilars while giving preferential coverage to medicines with higher prices. This might be good for PBM’s bottom line, but it can lead to higher costs for patients. What else are they hiding?     Follow us on Twitter Dan Goldberg @dancgoldberg Katherine Ellen Foley @katherineefoley Lauren Gardner @Gardner_LM Kelly Hooper @kelhoops Robert King @rking_19 Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ David Lim @davidalim Megan Messerly @meganmesserly Alice Miranda Ollstein @aliceollstein Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Daniel Payne @_daniel_payne Ruth Reader @RuthReader Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker Megan R. Wilson @misswilson   Follow us

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