Kate Snow 27:11
The FDA is pulling jewel vaping products off the shelf I know you're supportive of this. Is that enough is that we are well kids, I have two teenagers will they find another way? And will another brand pop up
Xavier Becerra 27:30
kids or kids or of course they're gonna find another way. But but we're doing is what's right. By the way, it's not just jewel. It's the vaping industry, which was marketing to young people. A product that is addictive with nicotine. So we're not just tackling vaping we're tackling tobacco, we're going at nicotine. And to me, this is one of our proudest, I won't say it's an achievement yet, because we haven't passed through all the court fights. But we have taken we're now pushing to take menthol cigarettes off of the market, we're now pushing to take all the flavored
tobacco cigarettes and videos off the market. We have now a proposal that's in the works to reduce the level of nicotine to trace amounts so that it's not so addictive when you smoke tobacco, which we think will cause most people, especially young people first starting to not want to smoke because there's no pleasure in smoking tobacco and putting your lungs if it doesn't taste good, or if it doesn't give you a high. And now we're going after the vaping industry, which was going around the rules and marketing principally to young people. So on tobacco, we're not doing miles. You know what, we're not doing mild? We're going as I said, Never do miles never do miles and we're not doing mile.
Kate Snow 28:51
What about the argument that some of these electronic cigarettes replace cigarettes, right? Replace the real cigarettes with the tar and the nicotine and so they're better for adults.
Xavier Becerra 29:03
But the evidence to it FDA has to move forward and it's there to regulate and it can only regulate based on on health and safety. If there's no health or safety reason to have a particular product, then it should be on the market. If there is a health or safety reason if you can prove that this helps keep people safe from using cigarettes, and it helps promote health of those who aren't smoking cigarettes. Show that evidence FDA must consider it.
Kate Snow 29:32
Mr. Secretary, you have taken some criticism. I'm going to ask this as nicely as possible. But there might be people in this room who were among your critics. There were people who said in the health community, you have no frontline health care experience. You shouldn't be in this job. There was an article in the Washington Post in January that said the White House was worried about your approach on COVID. are you securing your job right now? And and what do you say to those critics?
Xavier Becerra 30:00
We have gotten 260 million Americans fully vaccinated. There are some close to 600 million shots of vaccine have been administered in the country vaccination boosters. We are now working on helping address long COVID. For people who are suffering effects after their first incident in Elmas, nine, eight. We're dealing with undocumented, migrant children at the border. There is not a child that you hear about today, as you were a few years ago that we're dying in the custody of the federal government. We are treating children with dignity, even though we don't know what their final outcome will be in this country when they once they go
through the asylum process. But we're treating them with dignity and giving them the health and safety that you would expect to give to any child you don't. That's not in the news anymore. We were in charge of that. We are taking care of behavioral health issues. We are launching a major effort on maternal health to try to address the disparities that occurred in America where there are some women who don't have good access to prenatal care and postnatal care and are actually dying or having their child die. That's happening a lot in the African American and Native American community, we are going gangbusters in, in funding that. I don't think any of that requires me to have a an MD. And if I did need it, I have my wife
who's been adding them for three to three decades. So she's a great consultant. But as I said, I've got a team, Dr. walensky, Dr. Kala, Dr. Collins, you got some of the best medical minds that are there for you. What you need is someone who can manage the second largest department in the US federal government with a budget of $1.8 trillion, who can navigate Congress to continue to get more money, who understands how to deal with the courts when it comes to protecting women's reproductive rights, who will make sure that we work with the states, having been at State Ag to make sure that our 988 or whether it's behavioral health, or whether it's drug drug addiction services, that we are getting the response from our local
partners as we should you get a doctor. In fact, you've had doctors serve as HHS secretaries. Tell me how that went? And then we'll talk a little bit more.
Kate Snow 32:22
I've had to answer that a few times. I'm sure you have. We have like a minute and a half left. And I want to end on a hopeful note. What are you most proud of that you've you've been able to do or see in this job?
Xavier Becerra 32:36
My mother would always remind me make her brave and eat get ready. Yeah. Better to prevent that to remediate. We're doing a lot of prevent. So we don't have to remediate. A Frederick Douglass, a great American leader 150 years ago said it just as well. He said, Better to build strong children than to repair broken men. We're gonna build strong children at HHS. And whereas I said we're not going to do it mildly. We're going to go all the way. And so I'm probably most proud that we have helped essentially close a lot of gaps. Vaccines when I came in, the vaccination rate for white American adults was close to two thirds of them having had at least a first shot. This is early on last year, May or so. Black and Latinos, barely over 50%.
Today, first shot, adult Americans, not over 90% for white Americans, over 90% for black America, over 90% for Latinos, over 90% for Asian Americans over 90%. For Indian Americans, we are going to make sure we close gaps. Today there are more people who have insurance coverage to go access a doctor or hospital than ever in the history of our country. That's because we went gangbusters in making sure the Affordable Care Act increased the number of people who got insurance. And today Medicaid covers an additional 10 to 15 million Americans as a result of the pandemic. More Americans today have coverage than ever before. As I said, we're closing gaps to me. I think I can be proud that every night that my mom prayed the
rosary, she could say with some authority to the man upstairs the woman upstairs. My son's trying to do his part to prove a need in order.
Kate Snow 34:31
To prepare secretary, secretary Javier Becerra, thank you so much.