Chelsea Cirruzzo

Washington, D.C.

Health Reporter at POLITICO

✏️ health reporter @politico • waterbender • adjunct professor • she/her

Featured in: Favicon

axios.com

msn.com

washingtonpost.com Favicon

usatoday.com Favicon

yahoo.com (+1) Favicon

usnews.com Favicon

vice.com

wired.com

flipboard.com Favicon

elitedaily.com + 76 more

Articles

RFK Jr. could pull Covid vax for kids

1 day ago | politico.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Kelly Hooper

With help from David Lim and Erin Schumaker HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned the need for kids to get a Covid-19 vaccine. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images RETHINKING SHOT — HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is mulling removing the Covid-19 vaccine from the recommended childhood vaccine schedule, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn.
Equity programs out, nutrition programs in

2 days ago | politico.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Kelly Hooper

With Lauren Gardner President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are steering CMS toward rewarding providers for promoting healthy lifestyles instead of fighting inequities in health care. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images CHANGE AT CMS — President Donald Trump’s CMS is changing how the federal government rewards doctors and hospitals for quality care.
Obamacare in court … again

3 days ago | politico.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Kelly Hooper

A Supreme Court decision on whether the USPSTF and its authority to mandate insurance coverage for preventive care could have far-reaching consequences. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images ACA’S LATEST BATTLE — Obamacare is back in court. But in an unprecedented twist, the Trump administration is defending the decades-old law, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.
Medicare Advantage state of play

6 days ago | politico.com | Kelly Hooper |Chelsea Cirruzzo

UnitedHealth Group's shares fell on Thursday after a bleak earnings report. | Richard Drew/AP Photo MIXED SIGNALS — Uncertainty lingers for the Medicare Advantage industry as two of the nation’s top insurers on Thursday painted different pictures of the program’s financial stability. UnitedHealth Group, the largest insurer and typically a bellwether for the insurance industry, reported its first-quarter earnings — which were “unusual and unacceptable,” according to the company’s CEO.
HHS weighs steep funding cuts

1 week ago | politico.com | Kelly Hooper |Chelsea Cirruzzo

SWEEPING CUTS INCOMING — The Trump administration is considering eliminating dozens of programs at HHS amid a mass reorganization of the agency, POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn reports. Under a more than 30 percent cut to the agency’s budget, public health initiatives aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention would no longer exist, major parts of the National Institutes of Health would be abolished and the FDA would cease routine inspections at food facilities.
Kennedy pledges to figure out which ‘environmental toxins’ are causing autism

1 week ago | politico.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Lauren Gardner

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used newly released autism figures to insist the nation is facing a crisis and promised to ferret out the “environmental toxins” he believes are responsible. The secretary, who in the past has repeated debunked claims that there is a link between vaccines and Autism Spectrum Disorder, said better diagnostics and awareness are responsible for only 25 percent of the increased rate, which is now 1 in 31 children.
MAHA fever sweeps Indiana

1 week ago | politico.com | Kelly Hooper |Chelsea Cirruzzo

With help from Adam Cancryn MAHA ON THE MOVE — On Tuesday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA tour visited Indiana, where he heralded the latest governor to tout his love of healthy food and clean living. Republican Gov. Mike Braun signed nine “Make American Healthy Again”-related executive orders, including applying to the USDA for permission to ban soda and candy from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Kennedy pledges to figure out which ‘environmental toxins’ are causing autism

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Lauren Gardner

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. used newly released autism figures to insist the nation is facing a crisis and promised to ferret out the “environmental toxins” he believes are responsible. The secretary, who in the past has repeated debunked claims that there is a link between vaccines and Autism Spectrum Disorder, said better diagnostics and awareness are responsible for only 25 percent of the increased rate, which is now 1 in 31 children.
Key vaccine advisers meet

1 week ago | politico.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Kelly Hooper

With Alice Miranda OllsteinLONG-AWAITED MEETING — The CDC’s outside vaccine advisers will meet today and Wednesday — two months after their scheduled February gathering was initially postponed amid news that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wanted to reform the panel. What’s happening: The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — which meets three times a year — makes recommendations to the CDC on vaccines.
Why HHS cuts could put public health data at risk – RamaOnHealthcare

1 week ago | ramaonhealthcare.com | Chelsea Cirruzzo |Kelly Hooper

Politico Driving The DayDATA COLLECTION THREATENED — The mass layoffs of federal workers under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have impaired data-gathering on critical issues, including firefighter cancer rates, mother-to-baby HIV transmission cases, syphilis rates, outbreaks of drug-resistant gonorrhea and cases of carbon monoxide poisoning, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.