from WNYC Studios. I'm Brian Lerer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Tuesday, April 8th.

We continue with our Health and Climate Tuesday section of the show, which will keep up at least through the first 100 days of the

Trump administration so those issues don't get lost in the crush of other headlines.

We'll focus on some health-related stories today with NPR health policy reporter Selena Simmons-Duffin.

She covers the Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, now being run by RFK Jr. She has a story out this morning

called its Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and HHS just gutted its rape prevention unit.

She had one last month called segregated facilities are no longer banned in federal contracts.

So those are a few examples of how the war on DEI,

diversity, equity, and inclusion could lead to its reverse initials,

IED, inequality, exclusion, and discrimination.

Low-income people also seem to be less of a consideration

than in past administrations.

Selina reported for NPR that among the cuts to HHS staff was some confusion over a team

that works on lead poisoning.

We know lead poisoning occurs disproportionately in low-income children.

Selina reported that the CDC said, oops, the lead poisoning team was cut by mistake, but then reverse

that and said, no, it wasn't by mistake. Another recent article by Selena, as it relates to

affordability and health, five things to know as Dr. Oz prepares to lead Medicare and Medicaid.

One of those things, at his confirmation hearing, he seemed sympathetic

to the Republican idea that Medicaid should be only for its original specific populations,

pregnant women and people with disabilities, not low-income people in general, as Republicans

try to drastically shrink Medicaid to pay for President Trump's tax cuts.

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