WASHINGTON — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once said there are no vaccines that are safe and effective. On Wednesday, he seemed to have changed his tune.

Across two Senate hearings, Kennedy noted that as health secretary, he funded the development of new vaccines, green-lit new shots for patients, asserted flu vaccines are preventive care, and even urged “every child to get the MMR,” a shot he previously suggested wasn’t safe. Last week, he acknowledged the shot could have saved the life of a child who died of measles.

Kennedy’s agenda continues to make waves across American health care, as his department pursues a broad crackdown on fraud and seeks to upend Americans’ relationship with ultra-processed foods — all after major cuts across health agencies and a reworking of vaccine policy. But the about-face expands to a number of core MAHA issues — chemicals in food and the government’s relationship with industry among them. 

It comes as some leaders of the insurgent movement have grown skeptical of the administration they rallied to support, forcing the Trump administration to thread the needle between courting the MAHA base’s ongoing support and dropping MAHA priorities seen as impractical or politically unwise. 

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Washington state hospitals say their Medicare patients are waiting two to four times longer in some cases for procedures that are now subject to prior authorization under a new Medicare program. 

The report from U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is among the first to document alleged patient harm stemming from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ new Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction, or WISeR, Model. Cantwell is one of several Democratic members of Congress who have been urging CMS to scrap the program, which launched Jan. 1. 

Cantwell aired her concerns about WISeR to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday. She said CMS is using AI as a “denial device” and that patients are waiting weeks to get approval for services that previously didn’t require approval. 

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OpenAI is launching ChatGPT for Clinicians, a free tool for doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists.

It’s the latest product the AI giant has launched within healthcare, after the company announced …