NPR News Now - NPR News: 09-04-2025 4PM EDT

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

NPR News: 09-04-2025 4PM EDTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. encountered bipartisan pushback from the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon over his vaccine skepticism and availability of COVID vaccines. One of the most combative exchanges was between him and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. You just changed the classification of the COVID vaccine. I'm not taking them away from people, Senator. It takes it away if you can't. get it from your pharmacy. Well, most Americans are going to be able to get it from their pharmacy for free. Most Americans will be able to get it from their pharmacy free. The question is everyone

who wants that that was your promise. I never promised that I was going to recommend products with which there is no indication. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who is crucial in Kennedy's confirmation, also challenged Kennedy over his decision to cancel contracts related to COVID vaccines and high-profile departures from the CDC. Two former top officials at the National Institutes of Health have filed a whistleblower complaint, charging the Trump administration retaliated against them for resisting attempts to undermine vaccines and other scientific research. Here's NPR's Rob Stein. The former director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Jean Marazzo,

filed the complaint along with the former director of the NIH's Forty International Center, Dr. Kathleen New Zeal. In the filing with the Independent Office of Special Counsel, the pair charged the Trump administration illegally retaliated against them for pushing back against the cancellation of critical research, politicizing scientific studies, and taking hostile moves against vaccines. In a statement, HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon defended the administration's actions. Rob Stein, NPR News. President Trump will host dozens of business leaders for a dinner tonight. They include top tech CEOs. This coming as the president uses his power to affect private business decisions. More from NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Open AI CEO Sam Altman are among the leaders who will attend, according to reporting first posted by the Hill. A White House official not authorized to speak on record about the private event confirmed attendees to NPR and also confirmed that Elon Musk is not on that list. Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, was a senior advisor to Trump earlier this year and led the Department of Government Deficiency before leaving the administration amid a public falling out with Trump. Throughout this term, Trump has publicly criticized businesses and leaders attempting to get top corporations to change policies or even get rid of leaders he dislikes. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News, the White House.

U.S. stocks close a day higher with the Dow up 350 points. From Washington, this is NPR News. It's still uncertain if enough Republicans in the House will back a bipartisan effort to force a vote on releasing all files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier, and convicted sex offender. Some who accuse Epstein of abusing them, say they're discussing compiling a confidential list of names of Epstein's associates who they say took part in the crimes were covered for him. But one accuser, Liz Stein, says releasing names would be detrimental to survivors. But I think that we're willing to sit down, hear each other's stories, and look for any commonalities between us that could help this investigation. Liz Stein on NPR's here and now. New research suggests that the psychedelic drug LSD can relieve a common form of anxiety.

NPR's John Hamilton has more on a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study involved 198 people with generalized angeles. anxiety disorder, which affects about 10% of adults in a given year. Dr. David Fifle of Kadima Neuropsychiatry Institute in San Diego says LSD clearly helped participants who got one of the two higher doses. By the next day, the drug for all intensive purposes was out of their system, and yet the patient's average anxiety was greatly reduced. And this improvement lasted for the duration of the 12-week study. People who got higher doses also had less depression. The form of LSD used in the study is called MM-120. It comes from the company MindMed, which has already

started two larger studies that should be completed next year. John Hamilton, NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, in Washington.