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Health Care

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The Big Story

What RFK Jr.’s disclosures tell us about the Trump HHS pick

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, vowed to keep receiving fees from a law firm if confirmed by the Senate.

Kennedy released his financial disclosure form Wednesday.

Listed among his investments were assets which Kennedy has already committed to divesting from should he be confirmed as HHS chief.

These include $15,001-$50,000 in Amazon, an investment in Dragonfly Therapeutics also ranging between $15,001-$50,000 and $1,001-$15,000 in CRISPR Therapeutics.
The Trump nominee wrote in a letter to Randall Hall, the Designated Agency Ethics Official for HHS, that he would divest from those companies among others no later than 90 days after being confirmed.

But Kennedy will continue to receive fees from a law firm currently suing American pharmaceutical company Merck.

The prominent anti-vaccine proponent was co-counsel with the law firm Wisner Baum in suing Merck over allegations that Gardasil caused life-altering injury to young men and women.
In his letter to Hall, Kennedy said he was “entitled to receive 10% of fees awarded in contingency fee cases referred to the [Wisner Baum].”
Among the cases for which Kennedy received fees were those involving claims against the U.S. under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

He listed his income from Wisner Baum as $856,559. Before assuming his duties, he will receive “complete and final payments” from the law firm for concluded cases against the U.S.

“Upon confirmation, I will retain an interest in contingency fee cases that do not involve claims against the United States and in which the United States is not a party and does not have a direct and substantial interest,” Kennedy wrote in his disclosure.

“I will divest of my interest in contingency fee cases that involve claims against the United States or in which the United States is a party or has a direct and substantial interest.”

Describing the cases related to his agreement with Wisner Baum, Kennedy wrote, “Fifty of the cases concern claims for damages resulting from the Woolsey fire and three of the cases concern claims for Roundup-induced non-Hodgkins lymphoma.”

On Wisner Baum’s website, Kennedy is quoted as saying, “Gardasil has left a calamitous health disaster in its wake.”

The HHS nominee specified that he would “divest my interest to receive payment from all pending contingency fee cases that involve claims against the United States, including any claims filed under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.”

Gardasil is no longer available in the U.S., replaced by the similar product Gardasil 9.

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O’Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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Essential Reads

How policy will be impacting the health care sector this week and beyond:

Pence group launches ad campaign opposing RFK Jr. nomination

An advocacy group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence launched a six-figure ad campaign Wednesday opposing President Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The ad campaign from Advancing American Freedom, details of which were shared first with The Hill, includes digital ads that will run through the next couple of weeks in the nation’s capital as Kennedy awaits …

Full Story

Senate Democrats block GOP’s ‘born-alive’ abortion bill

Senate Republicans failed on Wednesday to invoke cloture on a bill legislating care for infants “born alive” during attempted abortions, with the motion largely serving to get Democrats on the record as voting against a bill being framed as anti-infanticide. Republicans sought cloture on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, a bill that requires health care practitioners to provide the “same degree …

Full Story

Trump ordered the US to withdraw from the WHO. What comes next?

President Trump issued an executive order late Monday night withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization (WHO). This is the second time Trump has tried to pull the country out of the public health organization, having previously done somonths before the end of his first term. Former President Biden ultimately rejoined the WHO before the end of the one-year waiting period required to leave the organization. It …

Full Story

In Other News

Branch out with a different read:

Trump rolls back Biden directive to study methods of lowering prescription costs

Among the dozens of Biden-era executive orders he rescinded on day one, President Trump nixed one that aimed to explore new health care payment models that would lower prescription costs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. Trump rescinded former President Biden’s Executive Order 14087, “Lowering Prescription Drug Costs for Americans.” He included this directive among those he deemed to be “unpopular, …

Full Story

Around the Nation

Local and state headlines on health care:

Bird flu found in Georgia commercial poultry plant, a first for a nation’s leading producer (USA Today)
An Indiana abortion clinic moved to a ‘safe haven’ state. It didn’t get a warm welcome (CNN)
Amid wildfire trauma, LA County dispatches mental health workers to evacuees (KFF Health News)

What We’re Reading

Health news we’ve flagged from other outlets:

More than a dozen cats sick or dead from bird flu in raw food, FDA reports (The Guardian)
Trump officials pause health agencies’ communications, citing review (The Washington Post)
The U.S. has a bird flu vaccine. Here’s why you can’t get one (Wired)

What Others are Reading

Most read stories on The Hill right now:

Trump demands apology, criticizes bishop’s prayer service remarks

President Trump early Wednesday morning slammed the reverend at a National Cathedral prayer service for the inauguration who called on him to have … Read more

Speaker Johnson forms committee to probe Jan. 6, Democrats’ original investigation

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday said he will establish a new select subcommittee that will probe the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — and likely … Read more