WHAT BECERRA’s SENIOR TEAM SAYS ABOUT HHS’ PRIORITIES — The health secretary has added at least three new counselors to his front office in recent weeks, a build-out that reflects the range of challenges facing HHS and the concerted effort to find experienced staffers to tackle them. The additions include Mary Wakefield, who spent the entire Obama era at HHS — first as head of the Health Resources and Services Administration, and later as deputy secretary. She’s returned temporarily to help the department manage caring for a record number of unaccompanied immigrant kids, four sources told PULSE. Josie Villanueva , a longtime Hill staffer, is also advising Becerra on the migrant child effort, in addition to working on other human services and economic stability initiatives. And Steven Lopez, who previously directed health policy for UnidosUS, is now HHS’ counselor on equity issues and will advise on other public health and health access programs. That means Becerra now has at least eight counselors advising him on policy. It makes for a crowded front office, but it’ll also immerse Becerra — who lacks administration experience and deep health policy knowledge — with experts in both areas. Several of these new staffers spent years embedded in the policymaking process, and at least three — Wakefield, Covid counselor Dawn O’Connell and FDA-focused counselor Stephen Cha — did lengthy stints in the Obama administration. Those appointments are critical to managing HHS’ current priorities, namely the Covid response, a border emergency that shows few signs of letting up and an emphasis on equity central to the administration’s broader agenda. They also point to a department preparing to be deeply involved in a pandemic recovery where its chief role will be directing billions of dollars in aid passed as part of President Joe Biden’s spending packages — and whose sure-to-be-scrutinized decisions on where and how to distribute that money will be crucial to the effectiveness of the administration’s Covid strategy. CLIMATE CHANGE’s BILLION-DOLLAR HEALTH TOLL — The cost of health complications tied to the use of fossil fuels and their effects on climate change now exceeds more than $820 billion a year in the U.S., the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, the National Resources Defense Council and Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action find in a new analysis. That total includes a range of expenses tied to illness and hospitalization, including lost wages and prescription medications, POLITICO’s Annie Snider reports. The groups still believe $820 billion “underestimates” the true cost, due largely to poor data tracking at both the federal and state health agency levels. — And regardless, the report concluded, this cost has fallen disproportionately on communities of color, children and the elderly — populations more likely to get their health care through Medicare and Medicaid. The political angle: The analysis offers ammo for the Biden administration’s broad climate change agenda, including creating an Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at HHS. The White House’s initial budget proposal this year also sought an additional $100 million for a CDC program focused on climate and health. TEACHERS UNION PRESSURES CDC OVER MASK GUIDANCE — The American Federation of Teachers is urging the CDC to spell out clearer guidance on wearing masks in schools, for fear classrooms will end up the center of a partisan tug-of-war, POLITICO’s Juan Perez Jr. reports. The union, in a letter to CDC chief Rochelle Walensky and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, noted some red states have rushed to scrap all their mask mandates since the CDC said vaccinated people did not have to wear them — even though there aren’t any Covid vaccines authorized for children under 12. “For those entrusted with the welfare of children … any change or ambiguity in guidance triggers a significant impact on planning and classroom management,” AFT President Randi Weingarten wrote. Weingarten has called for schools to fully reopen later this year. The CDC last week acknowledged that its broader mask guidance for vaccinated people “has raised questions for schools about how to proceed,” and vowed to provide an update sometime in the coming weeks.
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