A Bull-DOGE-er to HHS

America Dissected

Incision Media LLC

Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.6 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Abdul and Katelyn contend with a devastating week at HHS, including: The loss of 20,000 workers A massive restructuring at HHS Senior leaders leaving the ranks The addition of a discredited vaccine skeptic to analyze future data on the MMR vaccine Then Abdul interviews Nat Kendall-Taylor and Julie Sweetland from the Frameworks Institute about their research on American attitudes around vaccine hesitancy, and how to frame productive public health conversations. Check out our shop at store.americadissected.com for our new America Dissected merch – including logo shirts, hoodies and mugs. And don’t miss our “Vaccines Matter. Science Works.” t-shirts! This show would not be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. America Dissected invites you to check them out. This episode was brought to you by: de Beaumont Foundation: Find new, research-tested messaging to communicate about public health, plus useful tips for the real-world situations you face, at debeaumont.org. Ground News: Go to groundnews.com/AD to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan. Boll & Branch: For a limited time get 20% off at BollAndBranch.com/AD.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today, we soar through the wreckage of Donald Trump's bulldoger.
0:12.3	This is America Dissected.
0:13.4	I'm your host, Dr. Abdul Al-Saléid.
0:15.3	And I'm your co-host, Dr. Caitlin Jadalina.
0:17.7	And we're recording this on Tuesday, April 1st at 5 p.m. Eastern.
0:25.4	So it's been almost seven weeks now since RFK Jr. were sworn in to leave the Department of Health and Human Services. And wow, what a seven weeks it's been. Caitlin, how are you feeling right about now?
0:37.0	Today, April 1st, I'm feeling terrible.
0:40.3	It has been an absolute bloodbath for federal workers today.
0:46.3	We all knew this was coming.
0:49.3	It's just the stories we're hearing.
0:52.3	People showed up to work and found out they were fired because their
0:57.0	badge, security badge wasn't working. Top 12 of the top senior leaders are gone. They're actually
1:04.3	reassigned, which is basically firing without firing. And thousands and thousands of people that protect our health every day are gone i'm having
1:15.1	a hard time even putting it to words because today's been i mean it's so heartbreaking to see
1:20.9	what's happening to our field and so you're right i mean it's been a whole seven weeks of this it's
1:25.9	going to be more but right now now, I'm just feeling shitty.
1:30.7	How about you, Abdul?
1:32.3	To Caitlin's point, you know, today, 10,000 people came to work to do the thing they've done at work almost every day since they started working for our federal government, which is to figure out how to make Americans healthier and safer in the most efficient and effective way possible, using science to do that work.
1:50.3	And they found out in the most brutal way possible that their government didn't want them there
1:55.9	to do that work anymore. And I think just as a taxpayer, right, as someone who wants my government to be doing
2:03.3	more of this, rather than bombing people on a signal chat, it is deeply frustrating to me. And as someone
2:09.1	who's dedicated my life, as I know you have yours, Caitlin, to the work of public health.
	...

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