Trump's former surgeon general on RFK Jr.'s vaccine panel purge

Here & Now Anytime

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently fired all members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's independent vaccine panel, prompting criticism from health experts. One of those experts is Dr. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general in the first Trump administration. And, New York City's mayoral race is coming down to the wire, with progressive state representative Zohran Mamdani closing in on former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's lead. WNYC reporter Brigid Bergin explains what the race says about the state of the Democratic Party. Then, honoring Juneteenth in Charleston from the past to the present. Chad Stewart, curator of history at the Charleston Museum, explains Charleston, South Carolina's role in the transatlantic slave trade and the role slave tags played in it. And singer Mumu Fresh shares the joy and celebration of Juneteenth through music.

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:18.0	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:23.3	Quite simply a a shocking betrayal of public trust that's further shaking people's confidence in life-saving vaccines.
0:30.7	And many of us in public health believe it's going to open the door to outbreaks of diseases that we spent decades trying to stop.
0:37.8	President Trump's former Surgeon General sounds the alarm on the current administration's vaccine policy.
0:51.8	It's Thursday, June 19th, and this is here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBWR Boston.
0:59.1	I'm Shiko Thu.
1:04.2	Today on the show, the mayoral race in New York City gets interesting.
1:08.8	A new poll indicates a young politician closing in on
1:12.7	former Governor Andrew Cuomo's lead. New York City elections are always pretty tough, but I think
1:19.7	we are, we're kind of approaching the gutter stage, and it's getting very, very nasty. And this
1:27.4	Juneteenth, we unearth artifacts that reveal a system used to identify enslaved people.
1:33.8	Charleston was not alone in having a system where enslavers could hire out enslaved people
1:40.2	to do work for others. And so they had to have this badge.
1:45.8	But first, next week, members of the CDC's independent vaccine advisory panel are
1:52.1	slated to meet. They're set to discuss the COVID-19 booster shots as well as other vaccines.
1:58.1	All the members are new to the job. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy,
2:02.1	Jr. picked them after firing their predecessors. And a number of the new members have histories
2:07.8	of vaccine skepticism, as does the health secretary himself. Dr. Jerome Adams has been critical
2:15.1	of some of the actions that the health secretary has taken on vaccines.
2:19.5	He served as Surgeon General in the first Trump administration, and Dr. Adams tells Usma Khalid his concerns.
	...

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