It's the Brian Laris Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone.

One of the ways government and life might change in the United States if Donald Trump is elected president, is that RFK Jr., now

officially part of Team Trump, is likely to get a top job running health policy.

The New York Times published an op-ed piece yesterday by a doctor and a health policy advocate

called What to Expect if RFK Jr. is promoted to a position of power. We'll talk to the

writer of that article now, Dr. Rachel Bedard. The Times identifies her as a physician and that she

writes about medicine and criminal justice. Beyond that, Dr. Bedard is a geriatrician and palliative

care doctor. And beyond that, she was a doctor on Rikers Island for a long time and then a member of the New York City Board of Corrections.

And she does have a current role in New York City politics as the finance chair for Zellner-Mirey's mayor will run.

Myrie, for those of you don't know, is the progressive state senator from Brooklyn,

who has already announced his primary challenge to Mayor Adams for next year if Adams

is still the mayor.

So we'll touch on some local issues, but talk mostly about her op-ed called What to Expect

if RFK Jr. is promoted to a position of power. Dr. Bardard,

thanks for coming on. Welcome to WNYC. Thank you so much for having me, Brian.

So full disclosure, and if listeners haven't figured it out already, you're no fan of RFK Jr.

But you do also have a bigger picture take on how COVID politicized beliefs on health policy

that were not traditionally tied to any party identification.

So can you start by describing where you think we are now on that scale and how different it is from the past?

Yeah. So I think the past? Yeah.

So I think the last four years have been this really critical era for public health in American history.

And this is not to say that this was the first politicized pandemic in recent history, right?

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