RFK Jr. says that a lead poisoning prevention team is working. Senators say it’s not : Shots

“We have a team in Milwaukee,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testified to the Senator. I’ll hear it on Tuesday.

He was talking about a Lead exposure crisis At a public school there. The city’s health department had requested experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help in dealing with it. “We are supporting our Milwaukee analysis in our lab and working with the Milwaukee Health Department,” Kennedy added.

But Sen. Tammy Baldwin, from Wisconsin, was talking about something else. “There are no staff members on the ground deployed in Milwaukee to address lead exposure in children at school,” she said. Six schools in the city had to close for leads, she said, expelling 1,800 students.

So, do you have a team of federal chief experts in Milwaukee?

“There are no teams in Milwaukee” Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Traitis I’ll tell NPR. “There was a single [federal] Staff members come to Milwaukee for a short period of time to help verify the machine, but that was separate from the formal requests that the small team actually had to come to Milwaukee for investigation and continued support of Milwaukee Public Schools. ”

Totoraitis says that Secretary Kennedy may have been misinformed.

The contradictions regarding the program, which were on display at Capitol Hill on Tuesday, represent Kennedy’s approach to health agencies. He speaks passionately about the threat of environmental toxins to child health and American health, but even though he says it is his priorities, he struggles to explain the specific actions his institution has taken to shrink and rebuild.

Dismissed staff, but “continuation” of the program

Lead is a common neurotoxin that is common in older buildings, especially paints and pipes. It can cause developmental problems in the child.

On April 1, staff from the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program were fired as part of a reduction in the agency’s strength. The program included epidemiologists, statisticians and advisors specializing in lead poisoning.

At the event a few days later, ABC News Reporter We asked Kennedy about the lead team being cut. “There were a few programs that were revived cuts, and I think that’s one of them,” he said.

Not so, the CDC staff who worked on the team told NPR. Kennedy’s own communications staff at HHS I told ABC“The current department staff of how they exist now have not been revived. Work will continue elsewhere in HHS.”

Last week, during a Congressional budget hearing, Kennedy was asked about Baldwin’s cuts. “Are you going to eliminate this brunch at the CDC?” she asked.

Kennedy replied, “No, I won’t.” He also said he thought lead poisoning in children was a “very important concern.”

On Tuesday, Kennedy appeared before another Senate committee, and Senator Jack Reid’s doctor asked Kennedy to clarify what was going on. “As far as we know, no staff have been hired yet and we have seen no statements that reversed your decision to eliminate the program.”

So Reid said, “Which one?”

Kennedy replied: “We continue to fund the program.” He later added, “My understanding is that the program is continuing,” and he offered to speak with Reid after the hearing, “we’ll look into what the details are.”

NPR asked HHS if any of the CDC staff firing that worked on that team had been cancelled. In a statement, HHS responded: “Once HHS completes the detailed reorganization plan, the department will consider the secretary and all the strategic programs and priorities of the country. The programme will continue.”

HHS did not answer follow-up questions to clarify whether it means rehiring staff or working with contractors.

“The CDC is helping to verify new lab instruments used in environmental lead testing,” wrote Emily Hilliard, a spokesman for HHS, at the request of the Milwaukee Health Department.

Kennedy said through his testimony before three different legislative panels he could not speak in detail about the reorganization for the ongoing litigation. He previously said that the CDC has “mission creep” and will only deal with future infectious diseases.

Kennedy is intended to open a new institution called the Administration for Healthy America to tackle chronic illness, mental health and other health issues, but has published timeline details on when it works and who is not public.

US Senator Tammy Baldwin, D.-wis. will speak to the media after Tuesday’s Democratic policy luncheon.

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“You can’t cut funds, fire everyone, slap everyone, slap your slogans to a new agency or say the work will continue,” Baldwin told Kennedy during the hearing. “Your decision to fire staff and eliminate offices is putting children at risk, including thousands of children in Milwaukee. If you have any suggestions to make these programs work better, please present them and justify them.”

Milwaukee says she still needs support

Milwaukee health commissioner Traitis says it’s odd that the main local response is at the heart of this national narrative about federal health agency restructuring.

“Unfortunately, I think this crisis is a mine in a mine that is being demolished in a coal mine and it can be truly devastating for our country,” he says.

At this point, several school-age children have been found to have high levels of lead in their blood returning to school. In the past, the Health Department has dealt with lead poisoning occurring in residential areas. “This is a big pivot for our department to have to look into schools,” he says. “There are over 140 school buildings in the district, all of which run the risk of lead paint at different levels.”

They wanted CDC expertise to manage this crisis and worked for months on the formal demands of CDC staff support, he says.

“They were going to send that team to Milwaukee to help with research, screening and data management,” he says. Once all federal staff were fired, the request was formally denied, he explains, “Because they didn’t have subject matter experts throughout the CDC to support the childhood lead investigation we were doing.”

Totoraitis says he hasn’t led the public school city crisis, and now his local team is in a hurry to find a way to manage it without the support of experts from the CDC.

Any hints? NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin can contact with signal 02 via Selena.02 encrypted communication.

Yuki Nogchi of NPR contributed to this report.