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Tag: jim o’neill

  • Trump administration says it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota after series of fraud probes

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    President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota amid ongoing investigations into fraud allegations. Related video above: Group of Minnesota House and Senate Republicans calling on Gov. Tim Walz to resign over fraud investigationsActing director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jim O’Neill announced on the social platform X that the step is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” he said.O’Neill said all payments through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address, he said.The announcement comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.O’Neill also called out a conservative influencer who had posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said fraud will not be tolerated and his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”Walz has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump’s administration announced on Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota amid ongoing investigations into fraud allegations.

    Related video above: Group of Minnesota House and Senate Republicans calling on Gov. Tim Walz to resign over fraud investigations

    Acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Jim O’Neill announced on the social platform X that the step is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

    “We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” he said.

    O’Neill said all payments through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address, he said.

    The announcement comes after years of investigation that began with the $300 million scheme at the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program intended to provide food for children.

    A federal prosecutor alleged earlier in December that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants are Somali Americans, they said.

    O’Neill also called out a conservative influencer who had posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

    Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said fraud will not be tolerated and his administration “will continue to work with federal partners to ensure fraud is stopped and fraudsters are caught.”

    Walz has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

    Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

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  • With CDC signoff, CVS says Covid-19 vaccines will be available nationwide without a prescription

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    (CNN) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on a recommendation that patients must consult a health care provider to get a Covid-19 vaccine, although they don’t necessarily need a prescription.

    The updated CDC recommendation — made by a new panel of vaccine advisers chosen by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — shifted away from a broader push in past years for most people to get an updated Covid-19 vaccine. It became final with signoff from Acting CDC Director Jim O’Neill.

    The new recommendations mean people ages 6 months and older can get Covid-19 vaccines after consulting with a qualified health care provider, which keeps the shots available but may also create more barriers to access than in past years.

    Before the finalized recommendation this year, access to Covid-19 shots has differed from state to state as pharmacies and providers navigated new federal vaccine policies. CVS, which had previously limited access to Covid-19 shots in some places, said Monday that it was “updating our systems to be able to offer the updated COVID-19 vaccines to patients nationwide” and that “prescriptions from outside prescribers will no longer be required in any states.”

    The signoff is also coming later than usual for the fall respiratory virus season. With the recommendation, the government can finally distribute Covid-19 vaccines through its Vaccines for Children program, which provides free inoculations to about half of US children.

    The CDC’s independent vaccine advisers, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, voted unanimously last month that people who want a Covid-19 vaccine should consult with a health care provider, a process called shared clinical decision-making. However, they narrowly voted down a recommendation that a prescription should be required to get the shot.

    In August, the US Food and Drug Administration moved to limit approval of Covid-19 vaccines to adults 65 and older as well as younger people who are at higher risk of severe illness because of other health conditions.

    A study published last month in the journal JAMA Network Open found that a universal Covid-19 vaccine recommendation — as had been in place for the US in recent years — could save thousands more lives than limiting the recommendation to high-risk groups.

    Experts said that even requiring shared clinical decision-making could make Covid-19 shots harder to get.

    The recommendation “assumes health care and insurance,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently resigned as head of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “We do not have universal health care in this country, and we know millions of people are losing insurance.”

    HHS said it was bringing back “informed consent” ahead of vaccination.

    “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today,” O’Neill, who is also the deputy secretary of HHS, said in a statement.

    Another new recommendation will mean toddlers get their first vaccines against measles and chickenpox separately, around their first birthdays. In this case, the ACIP guidance formalizes an existing recommendation, which is designed to reduce a very rare, slightly elevated risk of seizures when the two shots are combined into a single injection.

    The CDC advisers said that the single-dose measles, mumps, rubella and varicella vaccine was not recommended before age 4 and that younger kids should get the varicella vaccine, which protects against chickenpox, separately from the shot that protects against measles, mumps and rubella.

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    Brenda Goodman, Katherine Dillinger and CNN

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  • LIVE: Former CDC chief Susan Monarez testifies RFK Jr. fired her over vaccine science

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    Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez testified before senators on Wednesday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired her after she refused to endorse forthcoming vaccine recommendations without reviewing scientific evidence to support the guidance.Watch a livestream of the hearing in the video player above.Monarez was ousted just 29 days into the job, over disagreement with her boss on vaccine policies.Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the powerful health committee Monarez is appearing before, expressed skepticism over the explanations Kennedy has given over her firing. He carefully praised President Donald Trump for his commitment to promoting health among Americans but made it clear he was befuddled by Monarez’s removal. He noted that senators had just approved Monarez’s confirmation with Kennedy praising her “unimpeachable scientific credentials.”“Like, what happened?” Cassidy said. “Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?”Monarez said in her testimony that Kennedy gave her an ultimatum: “Preapprove” new vaccine recommendations from an advisory CDC panel that Kennedy has stocked with some medical experts who doubt vaccine safety or be fired. That panel is expected to vote on new vaccine recommendations later this week. He also demanded Monarez fire high-ranking, career CDC officials without cause, she said.“He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign. I responded that I could not preapprove recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis for firing,” Monarez told senators. “He said he had already spoken with the White House several times.”The senate hearing will focus on the impact the turmoil at the nation’s leading public health agency, which is responsible for making vaccine recommendations to the public, will have on children’s health. It will also undoubtedly serve as an opportunity for Monarez and former Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who was also testifying before the committee, to respond to a number of Kennedy’s contentious claims about their final days at the agency.Kennedy has denied Monarez’s accusations that he ordered “rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations.He has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney. He did, however, acknowledge during a testy Senate hearing earlier this month that he ordered Monarez to fire several top officials at the CDC.The Senate hearing is taking place just a day before the vaccine panel starts its two-day session in Atlanta to discuss shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. It’s unclear how the panel might vote on the recommendations, though members have raised doubts about whether hepatitis B shots administered to newborns are necessary and have suggested COVID-19 recommendations should be more restricted.The CDC director must endorse those recommendations before they become official. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, now serving as the CDC’s acting director, will be responsible for that.Monarez and Houry are expected to face tense questions from Republicans over the CDC’s vaccine recommendations and COVID-19 policies. Democrats, meanwhile, are likely to seek more information on Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.The health committee’s hearing will be overseen by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who cast a key vote for Kennedy’s confirmation. He has expressed concern about “serious allegations” at the CDC and has called for oversight, without blaming Kennedy.

    WASHINGTON —

    Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez testified before senators on Wednesday that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired her after she refused to endorse forthcoming vaccine recommendations without reviewing scientific evidence to support the guidance.

    Watch a livestream of the hearing in the video player above.

    Monarez was ousted just 29 days into the job, over disagreement with her boss on vaccine policies.

    Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the powerful health committee Monarez is appearing before, expressed skepticism over the explanations Kennedy has given over her firing. He carefully praised President Donald Trump for his commitment to promoting health among Americans but made it clear he was befuddled by Monarez’s removal. He noted that senators had just approved Monarez’s confirmation with Kennedy praising her “unimpeachable scientific credentials.”

    “Like, what happened?” Cassidy said. “Did we fail? Was there something we should have done differently?”

    Monarez said in her testimony that Kennedy gave her an ultimatum: “Preapprove” new vaccine recommendations from an advisory CDC panel that Kennedy has stocked with some medical experts who doubt vaccine safety or be fired. That panel is expected to vote on new vaccine recommendations later this week. He also demanded Monarez fire high-ranking, career CDC officials without cause, she said.

    “He said if I was unwilling to do both, I should resign. I responded that I could not preapprove recommendations without reviewing the evidence, and I had no basis for firing,” Monarez told senators. “He said he had already spoken with the White House several times.”

    The senate hearing will focus on the impact the turmoil at the nation’s leading public health agency, which is responsible for making vaccine recommendations to the public, will have on children’s health. It will also undoubtedly serve as an opportunity for Monarez and former Chief Medical Officer Debra Houry, who was also testifying before the committee, to respond to a number of Kennedy’s contentious claims about their final days at the agency.

    Kennedy has denied Monarez’s accusations that he ordered “rubber-stamped” vaccine recommendations.

    He has described Monarez as admitting to him that she is “untrustworthy,” a claim Monarez has denied through her attorney. He did, however, acknowledge during a testy Senate hearing earlier this month that he ordered Monarez to fire several top officials at the CDC.

    The Senate hearing is taking place just a day before the vaccine panel starts its two-day session in Atlanta to discuss shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox. It’s unclear how the panel might vote on the recommendations, though members have raised doubts about whether hepatitis B shots administered to newborns are necessary and have suggested COVID-19 recommendations should be more restricted.

    The CDC director must endorse those recommendations before they become official. Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, now serving as the CDC’s acting director, will be responsible for that.

    Monarez and Houry are expected to face tense questions from Republicans over the CDC’s vaccine recommendations and COVID-19 policies. Democrats, meanwhile, are likely to seek more information on Kennedy’s approach to vaccines.

    The health committee’s hearing will be overseen by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who cast a key vote for Kennedy’s confirmation. He has expressed concern about “serious allegations” at the CDC and has called for oversight, without blaming Kennedy.

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  • Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to face questions Thursday after recent CDC shakeups

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    Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to face questions after recent CDC shakeups

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to answer tough questions from Senators following his controversial decisions regarding CDC leadership and vaccine policy changes.

    Updated: 3:35 AM PDT Sep 4, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face serious concerns from senators on Thursday regarding his handling of public health matters, following his decision to force out the recently sworn-in CDC Director Susan Monarez and replace her with Jim O’Neill, who has a background in business.On Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees who worked with Kennedy called for his resignation in a letter, accusing him of prioritizing politics over science. Kennedy has been reshaping the nation’s vaccine policies and has voiced skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots. He’ll be answering questions on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee. “The CDC was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health,” Kennedy said in a video message posted ahead of the hearing. “Its mission was simple and noble, protect Americans from infectious disease, but over the years, the agency drifted. Bureaucracy politicized science and mission creed corroded that mission and squandered the public trust.”Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed his concerns, saying, “What I’m most interested in is restoring the confidence of the American people in public health in America, and so far that hasn’t been done.”Last week, under Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA changed COVID-19 vaccine guidelines, limiting their use for younger adults and children. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face serious concerns from senators on Thursday regarding his handling of public health matters, following his decision to force out the recently sworn-in CDC Director Susan Monarez and replace her with Jim O’Neill, who has a background in business.

    On Wednesday, more than 1,000 current and former Health and Human Services employees who worked with Kennedy called for his resignation in a letter, accusing him of prioritizing politics over science.

    Kennedy has been reshaping the nation’s vaccine policies and has voiced skepticism about the safety and effectiveness of long-established shots. He’ll be answering questions on Thursday before the Senate Finance Committee.

    “The CDC was once the world’s most trusted guardian of public health,” Kennedy said in a video message posted ahead of the hearing. “Its mission was simple and noble, protect Americans from infectious disease, but over the years, the agency drifted. Bureaucracy politicized science and mission creed corroded that mission and squandered the public trust.”

    Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana expressed his concerns, saying, “What I’m most interested in is restoring the confidence of the American people in public health in America, and so far that hasn’t been done.”

    Last week, under Kennedy’s leadership, the FDA changed COVID-19 vaccine guidelines, limiting their use for younger adults and children.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

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  • The CDC’s Nightmare Interim Director Is a Peter Thiel Pal

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    The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is in chaotic disarray, as a slew of resignations and an unprecedented walkout of staff have roiled the agency. At the center of the controversy is the CDC’s weirdo director, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose most recent contribution to public health dialogue was a bizarre rant about what passes through his mind as he stares at children. No wonder longtime agency staffers are losing their minds.

    Now, in a development that is sure to help (*sarcasm*), Jim O’Neill, Kennedy’s deputy secretary, has been selected to take over at the agency. People are freaking out about O’Neill’s nomination because, well, he’s a freak—or, at the very least, he is anomalous in regards to his espoused beliefs and career experience and how little they seem to match his new job. But, as Stat reports, the sure-fire tell that this man waves a freak flag is his deep connections to PayPal co-founder and all-around weirdo Peter Thiel.

    One of the first things you notice when you check out O’Neill’s LinkedIn is just how much time he’s spent working for organizations that were created by rightwing billionaire Peter Thiel. Between 2008 and 2012, O’Neill served as the managing director of Clarium Capital Management, one of Thiel’s first hedge funds. After that, O’Neill spent nearly a decade as the managing director of Mithril Capital Management, one of Thiel’s venture capital firms, which has been responsible for funding companies like Thiel’s defense contractor, Palantir (which is also doing a lot of work for the Trump administration right now).

    O’Neill was also previously a board member of Thiel’s Seasteading Institute, an organization that is devoted to the creation of autonomous floating cities that are governed by private entities rather than traditional (i.e., democratic) governments. A picture on the group’s website from 2014 shows O’Neill hanging out with dead-eyed libertarian operative Grover Norquist at Burning Man. The Seasteading Institute is run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, who is also a point person for the “Network State” movement, which Thiel is also all wrapped up in.

    Frankly, O’Neill’s dense ties to Thiel are one of the less worrying things about him. Much more concerning is the wealth of information about him online that would give any sane person pause when considering whether to let him run a public health agency. For one thing, there’s an old YouTube video of him talking about how we should open up organ donation to the “free market” (there’s nothing wrong with incentivizing people to but and sell organs, right?), and he’s also a fan of Silicon Valley’s trendy new life-extension sciences (he has shared kind words about the penis-shocking, teen-blood-transfusing health guru Bryan Johnson). During the pandemic, he is said to have advocated for the use of alternative medications, like hydroxychloroquine and Joe Rogan’s favorite, ivermectin. The Seasteading Institute is run by Milton Friedman’s grandson, Patri Friedman, who is also a point person for the “Network State” movement. O’Neill also reportedly advocated for dispensing with the FDA’s mandate that drugs be deemed “effective” before they’re sold to the public. In 2014, he told a biotech group: “Let people start using them [the drugs], at their own risk.” And, of course, he wants healthcare to be a “free market” enterprise.

    In short, he sounds like a complete and total nightmare and, also, the exact kind of person that RFK would want to run the CDC.

    Unlike his boss, O’Neill is not a complete stranger to government, although this should offer little comfort. During the George W. Bush administration, he served in several roles at the HHS, even rising as high as principal associate deputy secretary. In that role, between 2007 and 2008, he is said to have focused his attention on food safety regulations. Then, during Trump’s first term in office, O’Neill was mulled as a potential choice to head the Food and Drug Administration. When it originally broke that Trump was considering O’Neill for this post back in 2016, Gizmodo wrote an article entitled: “Trump is Considering an Insane Silicon Valley Libertarian to Head the FDA.” At the time, much controversy was stirred up by the mere suggestion that O’Neill take the FDA role, and eventually, Trump dropped the idea. Now, unfortunately, O’Neill is going to be running an agency nearly twice as large and significantly more important, at least for the time being. Gizmodo reached out to the government for more information.

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    Lucas Ropek

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