In her new book “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies,” film critic and author Kristen Lopez says she wasn’t interested in writing “an academic book or one that felt like eating your vegetables.”

Even so, some publishers were skeptical.

“It’s not a sexy topic, which I’m aware of!” she says. “I wanted to write something that people can read where they’re not going to feel judged and can laugh a little. But also where I can talk about how movies have shaped a generation of disabled viewers — how these stereotypes leap off the screen and can hit the person watching them, and I use myself as the example. I talk about how these movies have affected me and how I see myself.”

Kristen Lopez is a film critic and author of “Popcorn Disabilities: The Highs and Lows of Disabled Representation in the Movies.” (Bloomsbury Academic/TNS)

A wheelchair user, Lopez talks about her frustration watching disabled characters played by abled actors, especially female characters.

“The disability is directly tied into how she looks. You don’t want to mess with the face, so you get a lot of blind, deaf, nonverbal performances, what I call ‘pretty disability.’ When you do see a wheelchair user, the woman is 5’6” and she’s sitting and she could pass for abled. For me, growing up, I couldn’t pass for abled. I’m not proportionate, I’m very small, I’m very compact. And growing up I was like, if these women have problems finding love and going about their lives and they’re beautiful women, what the hell does that mean for me? I don’t see anybody that looks like me!

“Most women that are disabled in films, who aren’t conventionally aesthetically attractive, are monsters,” she adds. “I talk in the book about my fear growing up of Zelda in ‘Pet Sematary ’ (1989) because she looked more like me than someone like Jane Wyman in ‘Johnny Belinda’ (1948). So when you’re a young girl and already dealing with beauty standards in terms of weight and makeup and all of the ways that you can look attractive, if you’re a disabled girl and you’re watching movies about disabled women? You’re like, well, I don’t look like that, so I guess I’m unattractive and I shouldn’t exist. I worry about the next generation of disabled girls, because they don’t have something better.”

The book also includes chapters on mental and cognitive disabilities in film, a reluctance to acknowledge the way racism can complicate a disabled person’s experiences in the world, and whether abled actors playing disabled characters is a blatant play for awards.

We talk more about Hollywood’s conception of disabled people.

Q: There’s a phrase you use throughout the book, which is the Tiny Tim principle. Explain what that is.

A: Tiny Tim is the one that screwed it up for everyone! He’s obviously the character from “A Christmas Carol” and he’s kind of the de facto definition of what a disabled person is, where you have a character that’s disabled and therefore sickly, but he has such a good heart. His soul is pure. And through his purity and goodness and unselfishness, he is able to teach the miserly Scrooge how to be a good person. And that was something that set the tone for shaping the belief that disabled people were children in need of caring.

So that extended to movies more generally, where disabled characters are always good and almost saintly and they help teach able-bodied people how to be good people.

Q: In the book, you talk about the idea that what we see on screen often shapes how we understand or think about the world. 

A: Culture influences movies, and movies have the ability to influence culture. I’ve had so many personal experiences with people where they feel that they understand me or understand my life because they’ve seen a movie.

Q: Let me push back a little. Isn’t that one of the things we love about the movies — that they give you a window into someone else’s experience?

A: They do! But at the same time, if the representation is bad and you don’t know that, then the bad representation becomes solidified as truth. That’s the problem. Unless you’re an active viewer and want to take the time to research and maybe read a book about it, you’re probably going to believe certain things that a movie is espousing, and movies codify ideas that trickle down into people’s perceptions of disability.

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A lot of people who have met me are like, “You have sweet government money! The government pays you as a disabled person.” And I’m like, where do people get that idea? Movies don’t even discuss the issues inherent in the Social Security disability insurance system. And as I was watching movies for the book, I realized how often disabled characters are financially well-off or at least comfortable. We never see disabled characters struggle for money. But a lot of that is because the movies situate the character as being cared for by somebody — a wife or their parents — and movies don’t discuss how disabled people make money, or even have jobs.

Another example was watching David Gordon Green’s film “Stronger” (2017) with Jake Gyllenhaal, which was really kind of eye-opening because it was the first time in a long time I had seen a disabled character living in a house that was not designed for a wheelchair. And watching that character struggle to move around, to transfer to a toilet in a small bathroom, to transfer into a car — these moments are not big moments, but the fact that Green shows them is kind of amazing because I still meet people who are shocked that I can drive a car, because they’ve never seen it. And if you’ve never seen it and you don’t interact with disabled people, then, yeah, you’re not going to know that we can drive cars.

Q: Is there a stigma against hiring disabled actors?

A: There definitely is. Marissa Bode, who plays Nessarose in “Wicked” has talked about the fact that we still have abled actors “cripping up,” which is the terminology for when abled actors play disabled characters. I come at it from a slightly different perspective because I am an entertainment journalist and I understand, OK, butts in seats and movie stars sell.

In 1932, when Todd Browning does the horror-drama “Freaks,” it sets up this idea that disabled actors are inexperienced and can’t act and therefore can only play themselves. So if a movie doesn’t call for a disability, why would you hire a disabled actor?

Q: Let’s talk about disability in the horror genre.

A: Horror has always been hospitable to the disabled, I think, because monsters are coded that way, going back to the Boris Karloff version of “Frankenstein” (1931).

But horror movies also often have disabled lead characters and disabled women, in particular. I love the Chucky films; actress Fiona Dourif is not a disabled woman, but the character uses a wheelchair and the director Don Mancini spends time showing you how she cooks, how she navigates space. A criticism of the premise is that Chucky is 3 feet tall, you could just kick him, and Mancini’s like, wouldn’t it be great to look at a heroine who wouldn’t have that ability? And the way that she gets out of situations is really inventive and it’s great to see that she’s not a victim. That she’s not a helpless damsel waiting for an abled person to save her.

Q: What’s one film you think captures disability well?

A: I love “Coming Home” from 1978. It’s the story of a Vietnam vet, played by Jon Voight, who is a wheelchair user who is trying to find his way in a world of changing political morals, and being a disabled man, and he falls into a relationship with a woman, played by Jane Fonda, who is the wife of another vet. There are some abled actors who have done an amazing job playing disabled characters and that’s true here. I love the bits of business, like the way Voight wheels the wheelchair, the way that he moves through space. It feels authentic.

Q: Also, he’s a sexual character and I feel like most depictions of disabled people tend to be asexual.

A: And if you’re a woman? Don’t expect to have sex at all. But yeah, “Coming Home” has a beautiful sex scene that’s hot regardless of the disability or not. And it’s a sex scene where the sexiness is in their communication. There’s a lot of discussion around, what’s going to work for him and “are you comfortable?”

Q: What’s one film that makes your skin crawl with its depiction of disability?

A: There are so many, but the one I always go for is “Me Before You” (2016) with Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. He plays a wealthy wheelchair user who lives in a castle and he is a curmudgeon who wants to kill himself because he doesn’t want to be disabled anymore. His family hires him an unqualified caregiver played by Clarke, who flirts with the line of being a sex worker. The hope is that he’ll fall in love with her and not want to kill himself. It’s based on a romance novel and it always makes me mad. I’m like, dude, you have nothing to complain about, you live in a castle, you have a tricked out van so you can go wherever you want and you’re still not happy.

And it sets a bad precedent for caregivers of disabled people. If you’re a woman, what’s the line between sex work and caregiving? That’s a thing that happens way too much in these types of movies. And the fact that she doesn’t listen to him; there are so many scenes where he tells her, as a wheelchair user, what works for his experience, and she’s like, “You don’t know!”

It’s just so stereotypical that disabled people are angry about their disability, but also financially well-off and are just waiting for their turn to die. It never ceases to piss me off.

Bouillabaisse is the iconic fish stew of Marseilles, France’s legendary port city and home to fishermen for centuries.

The origins of the stew are humble: It’s thought to have first been made by fishermen with the unsold leftovers from the day’s catch, seasoned with wild herbs, cooked in kettles of sea water over wood fires.

Over time, the stew evolved to an unctuous base made of rockfish, herbs, potatoes and tomatoes combined with fish stock, ground with a food mill and strained. To my thinking, this is the best part of the dish. It is complex and deeply flavored without being overwhelming. In the traditional way, this base, essentially soupe de poisson, is served as a first course with grilled bread and rouille, a spicy garlic-and-red pepper version of aioli.

The fish and shellfish are poached in the remaining base, then served as a second course, with more soup ladled over, additional toasts and rouille, and a bowl of boiled potatoes alongside.

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And that is exactly how I was taught to make and to serve bouillabaisse by a fourth-generation Marseillaise. He invited me to his house, along with my young family, where he proceeded to take me, step by step, through the process, starting with making fish stock with the heads and carcasses of the fish that he had purchased at the early morning fish market.

Next, we laid out the fish on branches of wild fennel, doused them with olive oil and a sprinkle of saffron. The soupe de poisson and rouille were duly prepared, and one by one, the fish and the eel were added, and finally, the shellfish. The potatoes, he told me, were really an addition from the Toulon version, but he thought they were a good idea, he said, as he set down a bottle of white wine from neighboring Cassis.

Bouillabaisse is the iconic fish stew of Marseilles, thought to have first been made by fishermen with the unsold leftovers from the day’s catch, seasoned with wild herbs, cooked in kettles of sea water over wood fires. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Over the years, bouillabaisse has taken shape in many different forms. Today, it is frequently served as a single course, with the soupe de poisson being replaced by an enriched tomato broth. Sometimes lobster and crab might be added, the eel almost always absent. Even in Marseille, it is rare to find the stew made with the so-called essential fish, small crabs and moray eel.

That is why, on a recent visit to Marseille, the terminus of the newly designated Valley of Gastronomy that runs from Burgundy to the Mediterranean, I was thrilled to find Chez Madie les Galinettes. Here, the bouillabaisse is made and served in the same traditional way I was taught by my Marseillaise friend. The restaurant, situated on the long side of the Vieux Port, is unpretentious, like its bouillabaisse, and I was even able to order a bottle of Cassis Blanc.

Below is my recipe for Bouillabaisse the Marseilles way, just as I was taught to make it, except I use West Coast fish and shellfish. Regardless of what purists might say, I think using what is at hand is something the Marseilles fishermen of yore would have approved.

As for the fennel, it grows wild throughout Northern California. Right now, it is flowering and its yellow flowerheads are easy to spot, along with the fern-like foliage. However, cultivated fennel will work just as well.

Bouillabaisse the Marseilles Way – West Coast Style

From start to finish, this recipe is authentic. It is a labor of love, starting with charming a fishmonger into giving/selling you fish frames and heads, to seeking the best fish and shellfish you can find and, if you can find it, foraged wild fennel. It isn’t difficult, but each step is important.

To keep the pace easy, I make the fumet a day or two in advance. Sometimes I make the soupe de poisson, the base of the bouillabaisse, the day before the grand finale, as well as the rouille, leaving only the marinating and final cooking of the fish and shellfish, potatoes and toasts for the day of serving.

Yield: Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

Fish, shrimp, clams, mussels and fennel are some of the ingredients used by Georgeanne Brennan to prepare a West Coast Bouillabaisse at her home in Winters on Nov. 21, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

For the fish stock (fumet):

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 large yellow onion, quartered through the stem end

3 cloves garlic, crushed or sliced

2 carrots, peeled, and each cut into 3 or 4 pieces

1 leek, separated into white and green parts, and each part cut into 2 or 3 pieces

3 pounds fish heads and frames from non-oily fish such as sea bass, halibut, snapper, cod, ling cod or sole (no gills)

6 fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs

4 fresh thyme sprigs

8 black peppercorns

3 cups dry white wine

8 cups water

For the rouille:

2 dried cayenne or other hot chiles, seeded

6 to 8 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

Large pinch of coarse sea salt

2 large pinches of fresh breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads soaked in 1 tablespoon boiling water

2 egg yolks, at room temperature

1/2 to 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 baguette, cut on the diagonal into pieces about ¼-inch thick

For the soupe de poisson:

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 pounds mixed whole small rockfish, cleaned, but heads and tail intact, gills removed (non-oily varieties)

3 cloves garlic

2 onions, quartered

6 medium russet potatoes, sliced ½-inch thick

2 bay leaves

8 sprigs fresh thyme

8 large, very ripe tomatoes, chopped

8 cups fish stock

2 cups water

6 8-inch pieces of wild fennel stalk or substitute cultivated

1 teaspoon sea salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese (for serving)

For the fish and its marinade:

4-6 wild fennel stalks with fronds or use stalks and fronds from 2 bulbs of fennel

1 pound halibut fillets or monkfish, about ¾ inch thick, cut into 1-inch chunks

½ pound each of 4 different fish fillets such as sole, sea bass, red snapper, true cod, black cod or rockfish (non-oily)

pinch of saffron

2 tablespoons pastis or Pernod (optional)

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

½ teaspoon sea salt

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

For the potatoes:

3 pounds medium boiling potatoes such as red or white rose, peeled

2 teaspoons sea salt

The grande finale:

10-12 cups soupe de poisson

Boiling water (or fish stock)

1 1/2 pounds prawns, heads and tails intact

2 pounds mussels

2 pounds clams, pre-soaked for 2 hours in cold water and drained

DIRECTIONS

To make the fish stock:

In a Dutch oven or large stockpot over medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. When it is hot, add the onion, garlic, carrots and the white part of the leek and sauté, stirring, until softened, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the fish heads and frames and cook, stirring, until they begin to turn opaque, about 3 minutes.

Add the leek greens, parsley, thyme, peppercorns, wine and water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface with a slotted spoon. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Using a slotted spoon or wire skimmer, remove and discard the large solids, then strain the stock through a chinoise or a colander lined with cheesecloth.

The fumet can be used immediately, or let it cool, cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day or freeze for up to 3 months.

A toast topped with rouille, a garlicky red pepper mayonnaise, is served over the soupe de poisson. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

To make the rouille:

In a mortar with a pestle, grind the chiles to a powder. Add the garlic and salt and crush and pound until a paste forms. The sharp edges of the coarse sea salt will act like little knives.

Add the breadcrumbs, the saffron and its soaking water and incorporate into the paste. Scrape the paste into a bowl. Add the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture has thickened.

Whisking constantly, slowly add the olive oil, a drop at a time, whisking until the mixture emulsifies and forms a mayonnaise-like consistency. Add only as much of the oil as needed to achieve a good consistency.

Cover and refrigerate the rouille until serving, up to two days in advance. The toasts (see below) can be made the day of serving.

To make the soupe de poisson:

In a large soup pot over medium heat, warm 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Add the fish, garlic and the onions. Cook, stirring, until the fish begin to change color and fall apart, about 5 minutes.

Add the potatoes, bay leaves and thyme and continue cooking, stirring to prevent burning, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes.

Add 4 cups of the fish stock and scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan. Add 4 more cups of the fish stock (reserve the remainder), the water, fennel, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over low heat until the potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.

Position a food mill over a bowl. Pour the contents of the soup pot into the mill and puree. Discard the debris in the mill. Rinse the mill thoroughly and purée the soup a second time.

The key to bouillabaisse is the soupe de poisson, which Georgeanne Brennan at her home in Winters on Nov. 21, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Transfer to a saucepan and taste, adjusting seasoning with more salt or pepper if needed. The consistency should be like that of a good tomato soup, not too thick, not too thin. If it is too thin, heat over medium high to reduce to the desired thickness. If too thick, add a little more fish stock. Set aside. You should have 10 to 12 cups.

For the fish and its marinade:

Lay the fennel fronds and the fennel slices on a platter. Place the fish on them in a single layer. Sprinkle them with the saffron, pastis or Pernod if using, fennel seeds and salt, and then drizzle over the olive oil. Turn several times to coat.

Let stand at room temperature, lightly covered for 2 hours and up to 3 hours.

For the toasts:

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees.

Place the baguette slices on a baking sheet and brush them with olive oil. Bake until dry, but not browned, turning once, 15 to 20 minutes. Set aside.

For the potatoes:

Place the potatoes in a large stock pot and cover with cold water.

Over medium high heat, bring to a boil. Add the salt, reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Drain, return to the pot and cover to keep warm.

For the grande finale:

In a large, wide pot, bring the soupe de poisson to just below a boil.

Lay in the halibut and any other thick pieces of fish. Add boiling water to cover if needed. Cook 6 minutes. Add the thinner fish fillets, pushing them gently into the soup, adding a little more water or stock if needed, and cook just until opaque, about 4 minutes.

Remove the cooked fish gently to a platter and cover to keep warm. Add the clams, prawns and mussels. Cook the prawns only until opaque, about 2 minutes.

Georgeanne Brennan checks that the clams have opened while preparing her West Coast Bouillabaisse at her home in Winters on Nov. 21, 2025. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Remove the prawns and add them to the platter of fish. Continue cooking the clams and mussels just until they open, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove to the platter with the fish.

Bathe the platter of seafood with a ladle of soup. Cover lightly with aluminum foil to keep warm.

To serve:

Ladle about ½ cup of the soup broth into each of 8 warmed soup bowls.

Add to each a piece of toast topped with a dollop of the rouille and a handful of the grated Gruyere.

Serve immediately with the remaining toasts and rouille.

When the first course has been finished, arrange the fish and shellfish on a serving platter and bring to the table, serving some of each kind to each person.

Ladle more soup into each bowl and pass the rouille and toasts and the bowl of boiled potatoes.

To make West Coast Bouillabaise, Georgeanne Brennan adds seafood, including fish, clams, mussels, and shrimp, to her soupe de poisson. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

If you’d rather go out

If making your own bouillabaisse from scratch seems overwhelming, here are some local restaurants, each with its own version, where you can find it:

Left Bank Bistro Brasserie, 377 Santana Row, San Jose; leftbank.com

La Fontaine, 186 Castro St., Mountain View, and 1375 N. Broadway, Walnut Creek; lafontainerestaurant.com

Épernay Bistro, 29 E. Main St., Walnut Creek; epernaylg.com

 

 

By Darius Tahir, KFF Health News

As health and human services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wields one of the louder megaphones the federal government has. Yet he insists he doesn’t want to impose his opinions on Americans.

“I don’t think people should be taking medical advice from me,” Kennedy told a Democratic congressman in May.

Kennedy once expressed different views — for example, about the need to proselytize about exercise. As he said on a podcast, he wants to use the “bully pulpit” to “obliterate the delicacy” with which Americans discuss fitness and explain that “suffering” is virtuous.

“We need to establish an ethic that you’re not a good parent unless your kids are doing some kind of physical activity,” Kennedy told the podcaster in September 2024.

The Department of Health and Human Services is tasked with communicating information to protect and improve the health and well-being of every American. It provides reminders about vaccinations and screenings; alerts about which food is unsafe; and useful, everyday tips about subjects such as sunscreen and, yes, exercise.

Under Kennedy’s watch, though, HHS has compromised once-fruitful campaigns promoting immunizations and other preventive health measures. On Instagram, the agency often emphasizes Kennedy’s personal causes, his pet projects, or even the secretary himself. Former agency employees say communications have a more political edge, with “Make America Healthy Again” frequently featured in press releases.

Interviews with over 20 former and current agency employees provide a look inside a health department where personality and politics steer what is said to the public. KFF Health News granted many of these people anonymity because they fear retribution.

One sign of change is what is no longer, or soon will not be, amplified — for instance, acclaimed anti-smoking campaigns making a dent in one of Kennedy’s priorities, chronic disease.

Another sign is what gets celebrated. On the official HHS Instagram account this year, out were posts saluting Juneteenth and Father’s Day. In, under Kennedy, were posts marking President Donald Trump’s birthday and Hulk Hogan’s death.

Commenting on such changes, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said in an email that “DEI is gone, thanks to the Trump administration.”

Some elected officials are pointedly not promoting Kennedy as a source of health care information. Regarding the secretary’s announcement citing unproven links between Tylenol and autism, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told MSNBC that, “if I were a woman, I’d be talking to my doctor and not taking, you know, advice from RFK or any other government bureaucrat, for that matter.” (Thune’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)

At least four polls since January show trust in Kennedy as a medical adviser is low. In one poll, from The Economist and YouGov, barely over a quarter of respondents said they trusted Kennedy “a lot” or “somewhat.”

The department’s online messaging looks “a lot more like propaganda than it does public health,” said Kevin Griffis, who worked in communications at the CDC under President Joe Biden and left the agency in March.

Transition to a New Administration

The new administration inaugurated dramatic changes. Upon arrival, political appointees froze the health agency’s outside communications on a broader scale than in previous changeovers, halting everything from routine webpage updates to meetings with grant recipients. The pause created logistical snafus: For example, one CDC employee described being forced to cancel, and later rebook, advertising campaigns — at greater cost to taxpayers.

Even before the gag order was lifted in the spring, the tone and direction of HHS’ public communications had shifted.

According to data shared by iSpot.tv, a market research firm that tracks television advertising, at least four HHS ads about vaccines ended within two weeks of Trump’s inauguration.

“Flu campaigns were halted,” during a season in which a record number of children died from influenza, Deb Houry, who had resigned as the CDC’s chief medical officer, said in a Sept. 17 congressional hearing.

Instead of urging people to get vaccinated, HHS officials contemplated more-ambivalent messaging, said Griffis, then the CDC’s director of communications. According to Griffis, other former agency employees, and communications reviewed by KFF Health News, Nixon contemplated a campaign that would put more emphasis on vaccine risks. It would “be promoting, quote-unquote, ‘informed choice,’” Griffis said.

Nixon called the claim “categorically false.” Still, the department continues to push anti-vaccine messaging. In November, the CDC updated a webpage to assert the false claim that vaccines may cause autism.

Messaging related to tobacco control has been pulled back, according to Brian King, an executive at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as well as multiple current and former CDC employees. Layoffs, administrative leaves, and funding turmoil have drained offices at the CDC and the FDA focused on educating people about the risks of smoking and vaping, King said.

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Four current and former CDC employees told KFF Health News that “Tips From Former Smokers,” a campaign credited with helping approximately a million people quit smoking, is in danger. Ordinarily, a contract for the next year’s campaign would have been signed by now. But, as of Nov. 21, there was no contractor, the current and former employees said.

Nixon did not respond to a question from KFF Health News regarding plans for the program.

“We’re currently in an apocalypse for national tobacco education campaigns in this country,” King said.

Kennedy’s HHS has a different focus for its education campaigns, including the “Take Back Your Health” campaign, for which the department solicited contractors this year to produce “viral” and “edgy” content to urge Americans to exercise.

An earlier version of the campaign’s solicitation asked for partners to boost wearables, such as gadgets that track steps or glucose levels — reflecting a Kennedy push for every American to be wearing such a device within four years.

The source of funds for the exercise campaign? In the spring, leadership of multiple agencies discussed using funding for the CDC’s Tips From Former Smokers campaign, employees from those agencies said. By the fall, the smoking program hadn’t spent all its funds, the current and former CDC employees said.

Nixon did not respond to questions about the source of funding for the exercise campaign.

Food Fight

At the FDA, former employees said they noticed new types of political interference as Trump officials took the reins, sometimes making subtle tweaks to public communications, sometimes changing wholesale what messages went out. The interventions into messaging — what was said, but also what went unsaid — proved problematic, they said.

Early this year, multiple employees told KFF Health News, Nixon gave agency employees a quick deadline to gather a list of all policy initiatives underway on infant formula. That was then branded “ Operation Stork Speed,” as if it were a new push by a new administration.

Marianna Naum, a former acting director of external communications and consumer education at the FDA, said she supports parts of the Trump administration’s agenda. But she said she disagreed with how it handled Operation Stork Speed. “It felt like they were trying to put out information so they can say: ‘Look at the great work. Look how fast we did it,’” she said.

Nixon called the account “false” without elaborating. KFF Health News spoke with three other employees with the same recollections of the origins of Operation Stork Speed.

“Things that didn’t fit within their agenda, they were downplayed,” Naum said.

For example, she said, Trump political appointees resisted a proposed press release noting agency approval of cell-cultured pork — that is, pork grown in a lab. Similar products have raised the ire of ranchers and farmers working in typically GOP-friendly industries. States such as Florida have banned lab-grown meat.

The agency ultimately issued the press release. But a review of the agency’s archives showed it hasn’t put out press releases about two later approvals of cell-cultured meat.

Wide-ranging layoffs have also hit the FDA’s food office hard, leaving fewer people to make sure news gets distributed properly and promptly. Former employees say notices about recalled foods aren’t circulated as widely as they used to be, meaning fewer eyeballs on alerts about contaminated ice cream, peaches, and the like.

Nixon did not respond to questions about changes in food recalls. Overall, Nixon answered nine of 53 questions posed by KFF Health News.

Pushing Politics

Televised HHS public service campaigns earned nearly 7.3 billion fewer impressions in the first half of 2025 versus the same period in 2022, according to iSpot data, with the drop being concentrated in pro-vaccine messaging. Other types of ads, such as those covering substance use and mental health, also fell. Data from the marketing intelligence firm Sensor Tower shows similar drops in HHS ad spending online.

With many of the longtime professionals laid off and new political appointees in place atop the hierarchy, a new communications strategy — bearing the hallmarks of Kennedy’s personality — is being built, said the current and former HHS employees, plus public health officials interviewed by KFF Health News.

Whereas in 2024, the agency would mostly post public health resources such as the 988 suicide hotline on its Instagram page, its feed in 2025 features more of the health secretary himself. Through the end of August, according to a KFF Health News review, 77 of its 101 posts featured Kennedy — often fishing, biking, or doing pullups, as well as pitching his policies.

By contrast, only 146 of the agency’s 754 posts last year, or about 20%, featured Xavier Becerra, Kennedy’s predecessor.

In 2024, on Instagram, the agency promoted Medicare and individual insurance open enrollment; in 2025, the agency has not.

In 2024, the agency’s Instagram feed included some politicking as Biden ran for reelection, but the posts were less frequent and often indirect — for instance, touting a policy enacted under Biden’s signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, but without mentioning the name of the bill or its connection to the president.

In 2025, sloganeering is a frequent feature of the agency’s Kennedy-era Instagram. Through the end of August, “Make America Healthy Again” or variants of the catchphrase featured in at least 48% of posts.

Amid the layoffs, the agency made a notable addition to its team. It hired a state legislative spokesperson as a “rapid response” coordinator, a role that employees from previous administrations couldn’t recall previously existing at HHS.

“Like other Trump administration agencies, HHS is continuously rebutting fake news for the benefit of the public,” Nixon said when asked about the role.

On the day Houry and Susan Monarez, the CDC leader ousted in late August, testified before senators about Kennedy’s leadership, the agency’s X feed posted clips belittling the former officials. The department also derisively rebuts unfavorable news coverage.

“It’s very interesting to watch the memeification of the United States and critical global health infrastructure,” said McKenzie Wilson, an HHS spokesperson under Biden. “The entire purpose of this agency is to inform the public about safety, emergencies as they happen.”

‘Clear, Powerful Messages From Bobby’

Kennedy’s Make Our Children Healthy Again report, released in September, proposes public awareness campaigns on subjects such as illegal vaping and fluoride levels in water, while reassuring Americans that the regulatory system for pesticides is “robust.”

Those priorities reflect — and are amplified by — cadres of activists outside government. Since the summer, HHS officials have appeared on Zoom calls with aligned advocacy groups, trying to drum up support for Kennedy’s agenda.

On one call— on which, according to host Tony Lyons, activists “representing over 250 million followers on social media” were registered — famous names such as motivational speaker Tony Robbins gave pep talks about how to influence elected officials and the public.

“Each week, you’re gonna get clear, powerful messages from Bobby, from HHS, from their team,” Robbins said. “And your mission is to amplify it, to make it your own, to speak from your soul, to be bold, to be relentless, to be loving, to be loud, you know, because this is how we make the change.”

The communications strategy captivates the public, but it also confuses it.

Anne Zink, formerly the chief medical officer for Alaska, said she thought Kennedy’s messaging was some of the catchiest of any HHS director.

But, she said, in her work as an emergency physician, she’s seen the consequences of his health department’s policies on her puzzled patients. Patients question vaccines. Children show up with gastrointestinal symptoms Zink says she suspects are related to raw milk consumption.

“I increasingly see people say, ‘I just don’t know what to trust, because I just hear all sorts of things out there,’” she said.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

CHRISTINE BENZ of Morningstar

Paired with high-deductible healthcare plans, health savings accounts help ease healthcare costs. HSAs are a triple tax-advantaged vehicle in the tax code, allowing for pretax contributions, tax-free compounding, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses. However, few owners fund their HSAs to the maximum, and even fewer invest their HSA dollars outside a savings account.

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Most consumers likely don’t fill their HSAs because they lack the financial means; critics note that the HDHP/HSA combination can be less beneficial for lower-income workers. But even wealthy consumers may decline to fully fund their HSAs. Many HSAs charge account-maintenance fees and extra costs for investing in long-term assets.

Unlike 401(k)s, where participants are typically captive in employer plans, HSA savers can move money from one HSA to another via transfer or rollover. Below, how to know if your HSA is subpar, and what to do if it is.

Valuable Tax Advantages May Come at a Price

HSAs appear preferable to other tax-advantaged savings vehicles, especially for investors expecting out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. Even in a worst-case scenario—using HSA funds for non-healthcare expenses—the HSA is at least as good as a traditional tax-deferred 401(k) or IRA.

Yet HSA expenses and/or investment shortcomings can erode their tax benefits, particularly for smaller HSA investors. Flat dollar-based account-maintenance fees (say, $45/year) hit smaller HSA investors harder, and interest rates for smaller HSAs may be lower. It’s worthwhile to conduct due diligence on your HSA, assessing the following:

1. Setup Fees: A one-time fee imposed at account opening, sometimes covered by employers.

2. Account-Maintenance Fees: Monthly or annual fees for maintaining your account, also sometimes covered by employers.

3. Transaction Fees: Dollar-based fees that may be levied when paying for services using the HSA.

4. Interest Rate on Savings Accounts: For people using the HSA to fund out-of-pocket healthcare costs (or taking a hybrid approach), it’s particularly important to monitor your savings rate of return. Many HSAs offer higher interest rates on larger balances; that argues for building and maintaining critical mass in your HSA.

5. Investment-Related Expenses: Investors may face mutual fund or ETF expense ratios, sales charges, and dollar-based fees for maintaining investment accounts.

6. Investment Choices: Assess the investment lineup on offer to make sure it aligns with your investment philosophy.

How to Switch Out of a Poor HSA

If your employer-provided HSA is lacking, you have three choices.

Option 1: Contribute to an HSA on Your Own

If you’re enrolled in a HDHP, you can choose a different HSA provider and deduct your HSA contributions on your tax return. That’s more cumbersome and requires more discipline than payroll deductions, so forgoing payroll deductions is usually not the best option.

Option 2: Transfer the Money from Your Employer-Provided HSA Into Another HSA

Your HSA contribution comes directly from your paycheck and goes to your employer-provided HSA; you can then periodically transfer some or all of that balance into your preferred HSA provider. There are no tax consequences on HSA transfers, and you can conduct multiple transfers per year. You can have more than one HSA, so this approach can work well for employees whose “captive” HSAs feature decent savings but less-compelling investment options.

Option 3: Roll Over the Money From Your Employer-Provided HSA Into Another HSA

This is similar to option 2. You contribute to your employer-provided HSA via payroll deduction, then roll over the money to your preferred HSA provider.

There are two key differences between a rollover and a transfer. In a transfer, two trustees handle the funds. In a rollover, you get a check that you must deposit into another HSA within 60 days, or it counts as an early withdrawal, and a 20% penalty will apply if you’re not yet 65. Multiple transfers are permitted between HSAs, but only one HSA rollover is allowed every 12 months.

This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance.

Christine Benz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar.