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 Nigh...

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...

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 proble...

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 S...

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 POLITIC...

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 administra...

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 ne...

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 newslette...

"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), t...

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 coro...

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 proble...

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, POLITIC...

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...

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 Tho...

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 colleagu...

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 produ...

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. Learn more about your ad cho...

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 s...

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. Learn m...

On this Veterans Day, "Pulse Check" and POLITICO's Arthur Allen kick off a four-episode miniseries: what does the future of the VA look like?  Today, we talk to former VA social worker Andrea Plate, author of the upcoming book, "Madness: In the Trenches of America’s Troubled Department of Veterans Affairs," about the challenges of caring for veterans amid funding crunches, structural problems and...

The National Cancer Institute estimates that over 1.7 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed annually. Advancements in science and technology are paving the way for new cancer treatments that can make a huge difference for patients. And yet, many people don’t have access to them. Hear from two health care leaders working to provide cancer patients with innovative, effective and affordable treat...

When there's an Ebola epidemic — or a natural disaster — that could threaten the world, a team at CDC springs into action: the Division of Global Health Protection, which deploys disease detectives and helps stand up emergency operations to fight the problem. Capt. Nancy Knight, MD, joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to debrief on global health crises and the world's response, part of a special pop-up...

An organ donation can save a life — or at least that's the message hammered home across public health, in advertisements or even when getting a driver's license.  But why does the U.S. system fail to recover so many transplantable organs? And why are some donated organs even thrown away? Greg Segal of ORGANIZE joined POLITICO's Dan Diamond to discuss the current problems and the promising future f...

John Marty ran for state Senate in Minnesota in the 1980s because he wanted to achieve social change. More than 30 years later, single-payer health care has become his defining mission — and Marty says that his local battle has been supercharged by Bernie Sanders and the national Medicare for All movement. POLITICO's Dan Diamond looked at the political dynamics around Medicare for All and then sat...