Profs and Pints DC presents: “The New Politics of Public Health,” on the incoming Trump administration’s likely impact on federal health agencies and policies, with Richard Hughes IV, healthcare policy expert and professorial lecturer in law and former professorial lecturer in health policy at George Washington University.
The re-election of President Donald Trump is expected to have major implications for health policy, especially when it comes to vaccines and matters of public health. Trump’s selection of Robert F. Kennedy to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—along with his choice of other like-minded appointees to head the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control—virtually ensures disruption and uncertainty within such agencies.
Closely following such developments is lawyer Richard Hughes, a nationally recognized expert (and teacher of courses on) law and policy dealing with vaccination and disease prevention. In his former position as vice president of public policy at Moderna he guided the company’s policy strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has led many efforts to expand and protect access to vaccines and preventive services and also advised Congress, federal agencies, businesses, and patient advocacy organizations.
Join Hughes at Washington D.C.’s Penn Social for talk in which he’ll examine President Trump’s picks for health agencies, the incoming administration’s expected actions and policies related to health, and the implications of it all for public health and vaccine access. He’ll look at the views of the newly appointed officials, the short-term and long-term impacts of their thinking and actions on public-health outcomes, and the legal and policy considerations that such developments would raise. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A subsequently edited photograph of Robert F. Kennedy by Gage Skidmore. (Creative Commons.)