(8 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 8 January 2025
1. Wide of U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra sitting down for an interview with Associated Press reporter Amanda Seitz
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"Covid, avian flu, Mpox, you name it, we’ve had to deal with it. And it’s tough being ready because it costs money to get ready. And so those are things I fear most. What one person, what one department, as big as HHS is, does, is not going to change what that virus, what that cyber attack can do. Unless they’re not prepared. And if you’re prepared, you can be most equipped to handle it. And, I would just hope that whoever is going to try to run the 12th largest budget in the world, understands that there’s a lot of responsibility, in your hands, to ensure the health and well-being of Americans. And quite honestly, people around the world."
3. Pan of portrait wall showing former US. Secretary of Health and Human Services
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"When someone says Make America Healthy Again, I would say been there, done that. That’s been our mantra, moving forward. We’ve been working to promote health. And again, not just, repairing illness, but, promoting wellness."
5. Various of Health Secretary Becerra’s portrait on the wall next to a blank space for the incoming secretary
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"700 million shots have gone into the arms of Americans for Covid. We’ve never had an adult vaccination program of that magnitude ever before."
7. Various of Health Secretary Becerra walking and talking with Associated Press reporter Amanda Seitz
8. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"We talked about the record-breaking success we’ve had in getting Americans covered, which, by the way, if you have more than 300 million Americans with health insurance coverage, that means you have fewer Americans, record low number of Americans, who have no access to health insurance, uninsured, which dip below 8%, got to about 7%. No president has done that before in the history of the country."
9. Mid of photos of Health Secretary Becerra hanging on a wall
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
"We now have 24-7 critical care centers for mental health services and substance abuse that were not around before, because before more often than not, because even hospitals weren’t good at this, you had to go between the hours of 9 to 5 to get your mental health services. You don’t always have that mental health breakdown at nine — between 9 and 5."
11. Close of plaque outside Health Secretary Becerra’s office
12. SOUNDBITE: (English) Xavier Becerra, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services:
++ENDS ON A SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Thousands of people were dying from COVID-19 every day. Americans were still being ordered to stay-at-home or mask in public. Millions of people were eager to line up for jabs of the newly-released COVID-19 vaccines.
That’s the scene the nation’s top health official, Xavier Becerra, wants Americans to remember as he readies to leave the office, possibly to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is a vehement critic of the vaccine that government officials — Becerra included — promoted to combat the deadly virus.
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