Politico's Pulse Check

Health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein and guest host Jeremy Siegel dig into Alice's story on the 'hard stop' that 40,000 National Guard members currently face. The Trump administration’s order currently ends deployments on June 24, just one day before thousands would qualify for education and retirement benefits. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.  MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW 'Hard stop': States could lose National Guard virus workers  Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Alice Miranda Ollstein is a health care reporter for POLITICO.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond, health reporter Sarah Owermohle and POLITICO Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel look at Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted vaccine expert turned whistleblower testifying Thursday in Congress. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.  MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Colleagues painted a mixed picture of the ousted vaccine chief A congressional ally is chairing Thursday's must-watch hearing Bright said he was among the health officials alarmed by President Donald Trump's push of unproven drugs The malaria drug touted by Trump has shown no benefit in fighting Covid-19   Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Sarah Owermohle is a healthcare reporter for POLITICO.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond and POLITICO Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel look at the Trump administration's efforts to ramp up testing to get the country to re-open...and grade how well Jared Kushner's team has done.Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Kushner assembled a crash team to address coronavirus problems, Dan first reported.·  By early April, it was clear that many major initiatives were being driven by Kushner's group.·  The team now says its work, including a 96-hour project, helped reverse the nation's testing problems. Trump touted reopening. Privately, his team sounded alarms.   Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond, health reporter Adam Cancryn and POLITICO Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel discuss how the dysfunction at the agency of Health and Human Services happened at the worst possible time... and how HHS is being sidelined in the current coronavirus response. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW White House weighed plan to replace Azar Trump rejects reports, affirms support for Azar White House installed a Trump loyalist as HHS spokesperson Inside HHS after 100 days of Covid   Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Adam Cancryn is a health care reporter and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond, Maya King and Jeremy Siegel discuss new CDC data that shows that Covid-19 is affecting black Americans at at higher rates and how the Trump administration — and specifically, Surgeon General Jerome Adams — are responding to criticism. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.   MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW POLITICO detailed how Jerome Adams was sidelined earlier this week. Black doctors blast 'woefully anemic' data on minority coronavirus cases.  Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Maya King  is the Campaign 2020 reporting fellow at POLITICO.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond and Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel examine how previous presidential administrations prepared — or didn’t — for the possibility of a pandemic… and how those actions led to the crisis today.Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.  MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Dan Diamond talked to top officials from three administrations for his deep investigation tracing the disease preparedness plans over the last 20 years. Dan Diamond is host of POLITICO Pulse Check and author of the POLITICO Pulse newsletter.Jeremy Siegel  is a host for POLITICO Dispatch.Annie Rees is a producer for POLITICO audio. Jenny Ament is the senior producer of POLITICO audio.Irene Noguchi is the executive producer of POLITICO audio.

Host Dan Diamond and White House reporter Nancy Cook talk about President Donald Trump versus ... everyone else in a conversation with Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel. The White House's coronavirus strategy has stirred rebukes from career health officials. Meanwhile, Trump attacked the HHS inspector general after the watchdog's survey on coronavirus readiness. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters. MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Dan Diamond and Nancy Cook broke down Trump's 'Hail Mary' drug push rattling his health team. Brianna Ehley and Alice Miranda Ollstein detailed the HHS watchdog report about hospitals' lack of coronavirus readiness — a report that stirred Trump's anger.

Dan Diamond and Nahal Toosi describe the process of getting the secret "pandemic playbook" from sources — while keeping a safe six-feet social distance, of course.  Plus, Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel asks Dan and Nahal about the shadow coronavirus task force being headed by Jared Kushner. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters.   MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW: Dan Diamond and Nahal Toosi broke the story of the NSC's pandemic playbook — a document the Trump administration largely ignored. Jared Kushner has emerged as a central figure coordinating the coronavirus response.

"We can't afford to let this happen again," said the former FDA commissioner, offering advice on next steps. Dan Diamond sits down with Gottlieb, who's become one of the most prominent voices publicly on coronavirus while privately advising the Trump administration on its response. Gottlieb discussed his new travel routine (starts at the 1:15 mark), the tragedy unfolding in New York City (4:15), the next cities he thinks are at risk, (11:30), his aggressive warnings on coronavirus (16:10) and his advice to the administration and whether he'd go back inside (23:45). Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters. MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Gottlieb and Luciana Borio on Jan. 28 urged leaders to "act now to prevent an American epidemic." Gottlieb and fellow former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan this week issued a road map to combat COVID-19. POLITICO called Gottlieb "the shadow coronavirus czar" — a term he disput

Dan Diamond and Dispatch host Jeremy Siegel provide a truth check on some of President Trump’s most recent claims and tell us where the U.S. coronavirus outbreak is heading. Stay up-to-date on the latest Covid-19 news by subscribing to the POLITICO Nightly and POLITICO Pulse newsletters. MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW: Dan detailed Trump's focus on short-term decision-making and the risk to long-term coronavirus planning. Health officials want the president to double down on public health interventions, not lighten up, POLITICO's Adam Cancryn and Nancy Cook report. "If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt," Donald G. McNeil Jr. writes at the New York Times.

U.S. health officials have told Americans to begin preparing for the coronavirus outbreak. What's the current risk to the United States — and what is the Trump administration doing to protect us?  David Lim joined Dan Diamond to discuss the state of public health, Trump's response and POLITICO's own reporting about the spreading outbreak. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW David was first to report that problems with CDC lab tests were delaying efforts to expand U.S. screening for coronavirus. In a follow-up story, David reported that the CDC wasn't ready to detect stealth coronavirus spread — hours before a new case of "unknown origin" was announced in California, after testing had been delayed for days.  Dan reported on the growing scrutiny on whether CDC was adequately prepared to fight the virus and on how the Trump administration was increasingly seeing the outbreak as the biggest threat to the president's re-election.  Dan also joined POLITICO's Nancy Cook to scoop that the White House was considering a shake-up to

As Louisiana health secretary, Rebekah Gee oversaw Medicaid expansion, struck a novel drug-pricing deal — and faced constant Republican attacks over her pro-abortion-rights record — before resigning last month. Gee sat down with POLITICO's Dan Diamond to reflect on her four years leading Louisiana's health department and what she's learned about public health and politics. After the break, POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein walks through the case previously known as June Medical v. Gee, one of the most anticipated Supreme Court cases this year, which could reshape abortion access in America. REFERENCED ON THE SHOW Gee oversaw Louisiana's Medicaid expansion, which has enrolled more than 400,000 people, amid criticism from Republicans. Gee also hammered out a novel "subscription" model to rein in spending on Hepatitis C drugs. A New York Times op-ed writer named Gee as one of five people who "spread hope" in 2019. Gee split with her boss, Gov. John Bel Edwards, over whether to allow a proton beam imaging center.

More than 100 people are dead from a new virus that originated in Wuhan, China, and thousands of others around the world are infected as the outbreak spreads quickly. How worried should we be? Chris Meekins, who served as a top emergency-response official at HHS, joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to explain what we know about the new coronavirus and how his former HHS team fights viral outbreaks like this one. MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW The health department has warned that the virus is a threat but stressed that Americans should not be worried about their personal safety. U.S. officials have praised China's response on the coronavirus outbreak — up to a point. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, campaigning for Democrats' presidential nomination, released a new plan to fight infectious disease. The U.S. government has a secret stockpile of drugs and supplies meant to save us in a bioterror attack, Lena Sun wrote last year in the Washington Post.    

Sarah Owermohle, who's led POLITICO's coverage of the teen vaping epidemic, and Paul Demko, who edits the Pro Cannabis team, joined Dan Diamond to review  the recent outbreak of vaping-linked illness, President Donald Trump's resulting plan to crack down e-cigarettes, how vaping and marijuana are playing in the 2020 campaign and whether young Americans remain at higher risk of nicotine addiction.

POLITICO's Alice Miranda Ollstein and Adam Cancryn join Dan Diamond to discuss what's getting missed in the presidential debates about Medicare-for-all, from the likely Senate math in 2021 to the complications posed by Obamacare repeal. The PBS NewsHour/POLITICO presidential primary debate will be held on Thursday Dec. 19 and also televised on CNN. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Alice's story with Alex Thompson and Holly Otterbein about how Medicare-for-all proposals caused trouble for candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. Adam's story about the Partnership for America's Health Care Future, the industry-backed group working to kill Medicare expansion. Dan's story about how the Obama administration weakened the Affordable Care Act's cost-cutting measures to preserve jobs during the recession.  

HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma are the two most important health officials in the Humphrey building — but they've spent months disagreeing on policy, personnel and priorities. The longstanding cold war between them has heated up amid questions over Verma's use of outside public relations contractors. On this episode of "Pulse Check," POLITICO's Dan Diamond joins colleagues Adam Cancryn and Rachana Pradhan to discuss the team's recent reporting on the Azar-Verma relationship, what it means for the Trump administration's policies and where it's all headed. MENTIONED ON THE SHOW Verma's faced congressional inquiries and an inspector general probe following a POLITICO report that she directed millions of federal dollars toward PR communications contracts that benefited her personal brand. Azar and Verma's battles have affected big ideas — like the administration's plans to replace Obamacare — and smaller moments like who gets to announce new regulations, POLITICO reported last week. Aza

One-third of the nearly 9 million veterans who receive healthcare from the VA live in remote, rural areas across the country, and delivering treatment when and where it’s needed most can prove challenging.   Hear from two health experts who are leveraging telehealth technologies to break down the barriers to heath care for America’s veterans.   This special branded episode of Pulse Check was produced by POLITICO’s in-house brand content studio, POLITICO Focus. POLITICO’s editorial team was not involved in the creation of this episode.   A disclaimer from our Sponsor, Philips: Sentry Score is a predictive algorithm for the adult intensive care unit (ICU) that shows a patient’s probability of receiving an intervention within 60 minutes. Sentry Score patient risk predictions are continuously updated as new vital sign data are received providing deeper insights into the patients’ trajectory, which can potentially provide the opportunity for earlier intervention. Sentry Score is a proprietary, locked, algorithm de

In the fourth episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen sit down with Sen. Jon Tester, the ranking member of the Senate committee overseeing the VA. Tester walks through how lawmakers have tailored legislation to boost the VA, where he thinks senators should push on oversight and what worries him about the agency's direction.

In the third episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen sit down with a permanently disabled veteran who relies on the agency. Today,  J.R. Wilson talks about his experience after getting injured during an Army parachuting accident, how he's relied solely on VA services to help with his recovery and his concern that privatizing the agency would harm its specialized quality of care.  

In the second episode of POLITICO's miniseries on the VA, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen delve deeper into the challenges of the long-troubled agency. Today, former VA Secretary David Shulkin discusses his rocky tenure leading the agency under President Donald Trump, how he he tried to implement changes before being fired and what he sees as the biggest risks to the VA's future.