On today’s show: The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond explains what the Trump administration’s moves on public health mean for people in the U.S. and abroad. NPR reports on what Palestinians are seeing as they return to their homes in Gaza. The City’s Gwynne Hogan, who’s been speaking with immigrant families in New York, tells us how they’re on edge over Trump’s promise to deport undocumented people. Plus, how a Chinese AI company is disrupting tech and financial sectors, four-day workweeks are coming to more U.K. workers, and why a popular diet supplement is facing new scrutiny. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What is Trump's impact on public health priorities?
But first, Donald Trump is rapidly changing America's public health priorities at home and abroad. Already, Trump has temporarily blocked officials at Health and Human Services, the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH from communicating with the public until at least February 1st.
Chapter 2: How has Trump altered communication in health agencies?
His administration scrubbed information about abortion from federal health websites and shut down a site created by the Biden administration dedicated to reproductive rights and resources.
He's also halted the HIV AIDS prevention program PEPFAR, which distributes HIV medications in poorer countries, even going so far as to tell organizations on the ground not to distribute the medications even if they've already been purchased. And Trump says he'll pull the United States out of the World Health Organization. The AP reports that U.S.
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's stance on the WHO?
public health officials were instructed to stop working with the WHO effective immediately.
Most public health experts are alarmed by this.
That's Washington Post White House reporter Dan Diamond.
The WHO plays a key role in identifying, say, the emergence of viruses abroad. Places that the U.S. isn't monitoring can't necessarily go. The WHO can and can report that up and share with the world an early warning on threats that may be coming.
For example, COVID-19. The WHO was instrumental in sharing data among countries. It also convinced China to release the genetic sequence of the virus in 2020 that paved the way for scientists here in the U.S. to develop a vaccine. So why is Trump taking this stand against the organization?
Trump blamed the organization, he said, for not being faster to identify the threat in China, deferring to Chinese experts on how serious the virus was, playing down the risks of, say, the virus spreading by air, and criticizing the United States when the U.S. took measures like cutting down travel from China.
The World Health Organization has disputed claims that it was deferential to China. But Diamond says a lot of the damage is already done. Because of Trump's criticism, Diamond writes, WHO has become a punching bag for China hawks. One of Trump's lines is China doesn't pay its fair share.
The United States contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the WHO, roughly 20 percent of its entire budget, while China contributes about 40 million. Lots of public health experts agree that some kind of change is needed.
There are some experts saying that this group has been overly bureaucratic, that it has been too favorable to China, and that it needs to undergo some reforms.
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Chapter 4: How are Palestinians reacting to Trump's comments?
Chapter 5: What challenges are Palestinians facing upon returning to Gaza?
But many have expressed grave concerns about the U.S. leaving altogether.
Now, I've spoken to some of those people, like Ashish Jha, who led the coronavirus response under President Biden, who says he wants changes to the WHO, but he doesn't want the United States to pull out altogether. He thinks that could be catastrophic for WHO and also for global health.
In recent days, Trump has indicated he would consider rejoining the WHO if reforms happen. Diamond told us what he thinks that might take.
I think the WHO would have to either make some notable concessions to Trump, perhaps make a vow of changing the organization in a way that would satisfy him, or the United States would rejoin the organization but give a lot less money than we used to.
As all of this plays out, senators in Washington are preparing to question Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's nominee to lead Health and Human Services, who would play a key role in executing his domestic health agenda. That confirmation hearing begins tomorrow.
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Chapter 6: What reforms do experts suggest for the WHO?
Now to Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinian people have started to make the long and difficult journey back home after many months of trying to outrun Israeli airstrikes. Many are returning to rubble. Most of Gaza has been destroyed by Israel's intensive bombing campaign. NPR visited Rafah in southern Gaza for the first time in eight months. Producer Anas Baba described the scene for NPR.
This street was called Paris Street in Rafah. But now, it seems that the Israeli bombardment left nothing from this Champs-Élysées of Rafah. We can see that the infrastructure, the streets, roads, water pipes, every single thing that's needed for a human in order to be in a happy place is lacking here in Rafah.
Baba himself is one of many people returning to his home in Gaza City. Here's how he described what it felt like to be walking among massive crowds of Palestinians doing the same on NPR.
I only want to walk to my house, to Gaza City. Just the happiness inside you is driving you all the way. It's just like after all of that patience, after all of that missing for Gaza City, now we've been reunited again.
President Trump has said Palestinians should leave Gaza altogether, and he called on Jordan and Egypt to accept Palestinians as refugees so the world can, quote, just clean out that whole thing. But many Palestinians have always been determined to stay, to never give up fighting for their homeland. Here's how one Palestinian man reacted to Trump's comments when asked about them by the BBC.
We don't want to immigrate. Why should we do that? If we wanted to immigrate, we could have done that a long time ago.
It's unclear if the president's comments signaled a formal change in U.S. policy. No recent president has supported or suggested long-term departures of Palestinians from Gaza. But that idea has been suggested before by far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. Meanwhile, leaders of Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Trump's proposal.
It was also rejected by the Palestinian Authority. Beyond rebuilding, Palestinians remain in desperate need of aid and supplies. Starting this week, Israel says it plans to enforce a decision to close down the Gaza operations for UNRWA, which is the primary aid agency for Palestinians.
This decision came after the United Nations fired nine UNRWA staff members for possible involvement in the October 7th attack on Israel. The agency has protested Israel's decision to shutter the Gaza headquarters in East Jerusalem. And The Guardian reports, as part of that standoff, the United Nations did not create a contingency plan for how to keep aid flowing to Gaza in UNRWA's absence.
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