Brian Laird on WNYC. 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 administration.

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.

Some local indications of how big a change

that could be. Long Island's newspaper Newsday reported last week that the island is vulnerable to

possible Medicaid cuts because 20% of people in the two counties, Nassan, Suffolk, get their

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