| | | | |  | | By Ben Leonard and Chelsea Cirruzzo | | | A FALL FROM GRACE — Public trust in institutions that play a role in people's health care continues to decline worldwide despite significant efforts from government agencies like the CDC to restore faith in the wake of disinformation and misinformation during the Covid-19 pandemic. New research from PR giant Edelman, which surveyed more than 11,900 people in 12 major countries, including the U.S., found that when it comes to health issues and information, the public trusts their employers and distrusts government, nongovernmental organizations and the media.
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| The findings square with a growing volume of research, including the latest data from Gallup, that points to negative views in the U.S. about the health care industry since the early days of the pandemic. Trust spiked in 2020 but has fallen precipitously since. There likely aren’t easy fixes. Trust in U.S. institutions generally outside of health care has also plummeted over the years. “It's not uniquely American,” Ashish Jha, the former White House Covid response coordinator, told Pulse. “We need to probably do more listening than talking.” CDC Director Mandy Cohen has aimed to rebuild trust with a worldwide tour but has acknowledged it will take time. “Politicians exploit the narrative of governmental untrustworthiness for electoral gain, while certain media outlets thrive on fostering discord, and social media platforms exacerbate polarization,” Jerome Adams, former surgeon general for former President Donald Trump, told Pulse. “The problem extends beyond individual politicians or political parties — it’s not just about Trump or Republicans.” Adams fears that without robust trust in government institutions, future responses to crises like pandemics will be hampered. Rupali Limaye, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said empathy can be part of a “long game” to rebuild trust. “We cannot dismiss people that have concerns, regardless of what those concerns are,” Limaye told Pulse. “Rebuilding trust requires the entity that is perceived as untrustworthy to act in a trusting way.” Tony Mills, director of the Center for Technology, Science, and Energy at the American Enterprise Institute, said religious Americans are underrepresented in expert institutions, contributing to public health concerns fueled by religion. “The expert institutions were tone-deaf to those concerns,” Mills told Pulse, adding that language experts often use isn’t meeting people where they are. Primary care physicians — who earn higher marks on trust than other areas of health care — are better at doing that, he said, making them well positioned to be trusted intermediaries. “Rebuilding trust has to start locally, meaning with the trusting relationships people already have in their communities,” said Lauren Taylor, an assistant professor of medicine at NYU. WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE. We’re impressed — and maybe a bit alarmed — by a man who drank at 120 pubs in 24 hours to set a world record. Reach us and send us your tips, news and scoops at bleonard@politico.com or ccirruzzo@politico.com. Follow along @_BenLeonard_ and @ChelseaCirruzzo.
| | |  DEA Administrator Anne Milgrim says the government isn’t providing sufficient funding to crack down on illicit fentanyl. | Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images | DEA: MORE ACTION NEEDED ON FENTANYL — The federal government hasn't done enough to tackle illicit fentanyl, Anne Milgram, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Thursday, POLITICO’s Carmen Paun reports. Given the problem’s magnitude, the government isn't putting forward enough cash, she said at the Vanderbilt University Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats in Nashville, Tennessee. “There is no cancer moonshot equivalent for stopping fentanyl,” she said, referencing President Joe Biden’s effort to dramatically reduce cancer death rates. “Some of it just requires us to be saying: ‘This is the most urgent threat we face.’” Contrast with others in the administration: Milgram expressed doubts that the deal reached in November between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping to restart counternarcotics cooperation will yield the results the U.S. hopes for: stopping raw chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl from leaving China for Mexico. A Biden administration official in January said the White House expected “a drastic reduction” in chemical shipments as a result of the deal. Milgram’s view contrasts with other Biden administration officials, such as Rahul Gupta, National Drug Control Policy Director, that the U.S. is making progress in fighting illicit fentanyl. Gupta has noted the decline in the rate of fatal overdoses, which hit record levels during the Covid pandemic. Congress has not made any new substantial investment to counter fentanyl. TITLE IX RULE COMING — The Biden administration is set to finalize its Title IX rule as soon as today, two people familiar with the plans told POLITICO’s Bianca Quilantan. The rule would bar discrimination based on pregnancy or related conditions as well as discrimination based on sex stereotypes, gender identity and sexual orientation. The protections are a key campaign promise President Joe Biden made on the trail. The rule would clarify that schools must safeguard parenting and pregnant students and workers from discrimination, including offering “reasonable modifications for students, reasonable break time for employees for lactation and lactation space for both students and employees.” Civil rights groups and LGBTQ+ advocates have pushed the administration to finalize the rule. Publishing it before late May would shield it from the Congressional Review Act, which could be used by a GOP-controlled Congress and a second Trump administration to more easily roll back the rule.
| | | | THE GOLD STANDARD OF POLICY REPORTING & INTELLIGENCE: POLITICO has more than 500 journalists delivering unrivaled reporting and illuminating the policy and regulatory landscape for those who need to know what’s next. Throughout the election and the legislative and regulatory pushes that will follow, POLITICO Pro is indispensable to those who need to make informed decisions fast. The Pro platform dives deeper into critical and quickly evolving sectors and industries—finance, defense, technology, healthcare, energy—equipping policymakers and those who shape legislation and regulation with essential news and intelligence from the world’s best politics and policy journalists.
Our newsroom is deeper, more experienced, and better sourced than any other—with teams embedded in the world’s most active legislative and regulatory power centers. From Brussels to Washington, New York to London, Sacramento to Paris, we bring subscribers inside the conversations that determine policy outcomes and the future of industries, providing insight that cannot be found anywhere else. Get the premier news and policy intelligence service, SUBSCRIBE TO POLITICO PRO TODAY. | | | | | | | | | A WINDOW INTO AI LEGISLATION — Congress is still likely far from enacting comprehensive artificial intelligence legislation that would impact health care, but a clearer picture of what such legislation might look like is emerging. The bills introduced so far from key lawmakers have largely had two aims: incentivizing AI research and development and curbing the technology’s potential negative consequences. In the latest example, Rep. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, introduced a bill Thursday alongside Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) that would formally establish an AI Safety Institute at the National Institute of Standards and Technology to facilitate voluntary AI standards. That goal of avoiding an AI “wild west” is shared by potential future Senate Republican leader John Thune of South Dakota, who pushed his legislation this week that would require NIST to develop recommendations for agencies on guardrails for “high-impact” AI. Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also this week pushed his legislation that would mandate companies assess the impacts of automated decision-making and require reporting to the FTC. Other prominent legislation trying to limit dangers from the technology would address AI-related biosecurity risks, among others. The lawmakers led by Cantwell also want to make sure the U.S. doesn’t fall behind other countries in developing AI. Their legislation would also establish federal testing programs and direct federal agencies to make public datasets to advance AI applications, including in medicine. Zooming out: Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to balance encouraging innovation and mitigating harm. However, it’s unclear when any legislation will be taken up. TARGETED CANCER TREATMENT — National Institutes of Health researchers have crafted an artificial intelligence tool that examines individual cells in tumors to analyze what treatments might work best on those specific cells. A proof of concept study published in Nature Cancer on Thursday found that RNA sequencing could potentially help match patients to treatments. Researchers developed AI tools for 44 FDA-approved cancer drugs and found that the models were generally accurate in estimating how cells would respond to the drugs. The bigger picture: Tech companies and researchers have long envisioned AI as a way to better target treatments for individual patients. Members of Congress have also eyed the technology for drug development.
| | POLITICO’s Victoria Guida writes about how the Biden and Trump campaigns are cherry-picking misleading Covid-era economic statistics and using them to their advantage. Roll Call reports on drastically different takes on IVF in France and the U.S. The Baltimore Sun examines long emergency room wait times. The Wall Street Journal reports on 23andMe’s plans to go private.
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