Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: Inside the Latest Weight-Loss Breakthrough and CDC Backlash

Dr. Nicole Saphier unpacks two major health stories making headlines: the promising new weight-loss medication currently in clinical trials and the controversy surrounding recent changes to the CDC’s vaccine safety webpage. She highlights why sustainable healthy habits still outperform quick-fix medications and raises concerns about growing political influence inside major public-health institutions. Wellness Unmasked is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Friday. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Wellness sun Mass. I'm doctor Nicole Saffire and
this is your weekly rundown. Now. I am going to
start by apologizing for my voice. Well, I don't have one.
I was battling a little bit of bronchitis and just
a normal crazy week and here we are without a voice.
So I apologize. But we're doing the rundown because you
deserve it. So we have some good news in the

(00:23):
news cycle right now. Researchers release data on a once
weekly injectable drug very similar to the glp ones, but
it works a little bit differently. Tin phase two trials,
people on the medication lost about twenty percent of their
body weight, which puts them kind of in the ballpark
of the GLP ones. The reason I like this well,
I like choice when it comes to medications, and I

(00:45):
don't like monopolies on the market. So the more medications
that come that can help people to lose weight, in
my opinion, the better. There's also an oral medication, a
tablet that's in clinical trials right now as well. Now,
the big thing for me is no injection, no pill.
These are not magic drugs, okay, they cannot replace the

(01:06):
basics of real food, movement, sleep, and stress management. We
cannot be substituting these medications for healthy habits. That being said,
obesity is a chronic and complex disease and it's not
all about willpower, so there has to be some options
for people to help get a jump start. My biggest
concern is what we have seen when people start these medications.

(01:29):
Once they go off the medications, not only do they
gain their weight pretty much right back, oftentimes they gain
more weight than they started with. So it works the opposite.
Now we'll have an even more overweight person unless they
have just completely decided to sign up for lifetime use
of this medication, which, to be honest, I think a
lot of people are doing that. Here's the problem. We

(01:51):
don't really have that long term safety data to show
that lifetime use of this medication is okay. So I
find that little bit concerning. We know that there's side effects.
We already see the side effects, so people take these
medications with known risks, but there may be more risks
that we haven't even identified. Now. The second topic for
a rundown today, it's kind of funny. I roll my

(02:13):
eyes at it, and when I say funny, I don't
really mean funny haha, but funny in a like a
chaotic way that again makes me roll my eyes as
a sense that the CDC has quietly changed the language
on its vaccine safety web page this week. Now, this
isn't really surprising, seeing as RFK Junior when prior to

(02:36):
his presidential campaign launch and during his campaign launch before
he quit his campaign to join President Trump, he was
all about the vaccines. All he wanted to talk about
was the vaccines, and a huge part of his base
are people who do not support the use of vaccines.
So am I surprised that they decided to manipulate the

(02:56):
CDC vaccine web page now that he's second cherry of HHS.
Of course not. Here's the problem. The problem is that
during the confirmation process, and I'm not sure if you
watched it like I did, Senator Bill Cassidy, who's a doctor,
put a Republican senator and his vote was crucial to
get RFK Junior confirmed, and everybody on the left was

(03:20):
hoping he was going to vote no, and he really
had trepidation. He had his own concerns about RFK Jr.
And his stance on vaccines. Well, in a letter or
in a speech that he gave on the Senate floor,
he being Senator Bill Cassidy. He talked about a closed
door conversation that he had with I believe RFK Jr.

(03:41):
Where RFK Junior or his team or someone told Bill
Cassidy they would not be changing the verbiage on the
CDC's vaccine web page the low and behold. Here we
are a year in or not less than a year
into the administration takeover, and they did just that. So
for me, do I like the new wording of the

(04:04):
CDC web page? No? I don't. It is it sounds
like someone without a science background wrote it. Certainly is
not evidence based, and I really just think this was
a way too you know, I guess appease his supporters
who have been very outspoken saying that he isn't doing
anything for vaccine. Just changing the verbiage on the web page.

(04:27):
Is that going to move the needle either way? Absolutely not.
This is really just posturing, but it's doing a huge
discredit to the CDC, which, by the way, I already
had major issues with the CDC through COVID, but I
don't even reference it now at all because I just
don't know the motivation behind what's on the web pages.
So I felt that way through COVID. I'm still continuing

(04:49):
to feel that way. I can't wait until we get
back to the place where the CDC is evidence based,
science base and not functioning as a political arm of
the administration. You know, hopefully in my lifetime, but we'll see.
We continue to get farther away every single day, watching
people on social media clap and applaud the changes on

(05:11):
the CDC website, saying, oh my gosh, look what the
CDC is finally admitting. They're finally admitting that there may
be a link with vaccines and cancers. No, they didn't
do that at all. And no, this isn't the quote
quote unquote CDC that's doing this. This is Under Secretary
Kennedy's CDC and the people that he chose are changing
the web page. This is not a neutral body anymore.

(05:34):
It hasn't been for probably over a decade, if it
ever was. Thanks for listening to Wellness on MASS I'm
doctor Nicole Safire and this has been your weekly rundown.
Be sure to listen to iHeartRadio wherever you get your podcasts,
and I'll see you next time.