what president electrons latest picks could mean for health policy in the u.s.. then, wt contaminated water from -- why contaminated water from a former military base is seeping into local michigan waterways decades after the site was closed. but we can't afford to allow this land, this national -- natural resource to be poisonous for years and years to come. it has to stop. >> the impact hurricanes and other disasters have on children's mental health and learning. >> major funding for pbs news weekend provided by. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions.

and, friends of the news hour. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> good evening. president-elect donald trump named three doctors to key public health roles nominating a family medicine doctor and fox news contributor to be the next certain -- surgeon general and tapping johns hopkins surgeon marty may carry the food and drug administration and a former

congressman from florida to be the director of the center from disease control and prevention. for more about what these picks say we turn to a politico reporter. the surgeon general is often called the nation's doctor and they have a big public health pulpit. i want to read a post from jerome adams donald trump's first surgeon general who posted today that whooping cough cases are up five times this year and measles does have gone up globally and the new administration had better have a strong disease response plan and ensure public health and vaccine confidence stays high or they will be distracted by outbreaks for four years. >> i think that we are seeing

that we are seeing the health care world expressed cautious optimism about her nomination compared to other health officials recently nominated by donald trump. she has expressed support for vaccines, unlike some other folks. but she has been critical of vaccine mandates. this could endear her to donald trump and robert f. kennedy, jr.'s wing. in that quote you see tension. both trump and kennedy have expressed interest in moving away from infectious diseases and more on chronic diseases. of course there's a lot of overlap. infectious disease can cause chronic disease and there is alarm given the public health threats we see now and outbreaks of bird flu.

there is a concern that the officials with priorities they voiced in the past and since being nominated will take the foot off the gas of both research and promotion of measures that could halt the spread of infectious disees. >> to lead to food and drug administration donald trump nominated marty makary. >> he was seen as a more establishment friendly pick, less out of the blue. he was under consideration for a while now. i think the same as the surgeon general pick, you are seeing cautious optimism from the public health world based on things he has said in the past and his support self identifying as being pro-vaccine. there is helfrom the public -- hope from the public health community that he will be somewhat of a counter to the

robert f. kennedy,r. vaccine skepticism wing emerging in this administration. but everybody serves a the pleasure of the president and really this will be what the tone is coming from the top of that will dictate a lot of things going forward. >> then there is the former republican congressman, antiabortion, pushing the idea that preservatives in vaccines cause autism. he will potentially soon be leading the cdc. it now has to be confirmed by the senate. that he fit into a pattern when it comes to donald trump sticks to shape health policy and public health? >> even though these folks are ideologically a little all over the place, themes are emerging and one of the themes alarming people is these folks don't have experience running big bureaucracies. there are tens of thousands of

employees at these agencies and this is why in the past you have had governors or people with previous government experience doing this. even though you have medical experience or, like weldon, you have served on committees that oversee the agencies, that is important. they are alarmed not only by some of the views he has expressed. he has not only questioned vaccine safety when it comes to things like covid but regular childhood vaccines, the mmr vaccines. he has questioned the hpv vaccine. it is really alarming lawmakers and people in the public health world in addition to this sort of lack of executive experience. >> speaking of mmr disease, all three nominees will be big figures in informing americans about public health. donald trump's choices have spread vaccine and misinformation. even though the data is overwhelming in terms of

effectiveness, when you compare the cases of major disease annually in the u.s. before, measles, mumps and whooping cough vaccines do now when they are marked -- to now when they are more widely available, a 99%-100% drop of cases annually. what impact will all three people potentially have on public health? >> it could be used. -- huge. we already have blic health experts already worried about the worst case scenario like we saw during covid-19, a lot of people that did not need to get sick and died getting sick and dying. that could happen with a new outbreak like we are seeing the cases of bird flu that are very troubling. and it could also happen with a resurgence of some diseases that we made it so much progress on over the past several decades. we could really see that backtrack. >> alice miranda alstyne, thank you for your time. outside those top public health

roles new nominees are rounding up from's administration. today he named bert rollins as agriculture secretary, the president and ceo of the america first policy institute, a donald trump aligned think tank. in the first administration she served on his domestic policy council. the president elect joyce for the office of management and a familiar name who led the office during the trump term one of the lead authors of project 20 25, a conservative playbook that proposed dramatic plans to overhaul parts of the government. he has said the u.s. is living in a post-constitutional time and crafted plans for donald trump to deploy the military under civil unrest. sebastian gorka is the director for counterterrorism who became a fox news director after a brief stint in the white house during donaltrump's first administration. donald trump's former national

security advis john bolton said he is a dangerous choice. >> sebastian gorka is a con man. i would not have him in any u.s. government. fortunately this is not the highest position he has been mentioned for. but i do not think it will bode well for counterterrorism efforts. >> president elect trump's announced picks for the department of labor, housing, and urban development. the labor secretary nominee recently lost her reelection bid to the house and is backed by labor unions including the head of the teamsters. and former texas state representative professional football player and a donald trump white house alum scott turner was tapped for hud secretary. in the middle east deadly airstrikes killed six people mainly women and children in the southern area of khan yunis. the death toll from the 13th month long war has ticked past 44,000. the health ministry does not

distinguish between fighters and civilians. in lebanon and israeli airstrike killed more than a dozen people in paper. lebanese health officials say the strikes hit the central part of the capital getting 15 and wounding more than 60 others. when an eight story building came crashing down. in california, the cdc is investigating the country's first place of birth -- a case of bird flu diagnosed in a child for the health agency says the child has mild symptoms and is recovering an investigation into how they contracted the virus is underway. officials say the child may have had contact with wild birds. no other cases involving children have been announced. still to come on pbs news week and, why a decades old toxic phone is still contaminating waterways in north michigan and the long-term impact storms have on children's mental health. >> this is pbs news week and

from the david and rubenstein studio at w eta in washington home of the pbs news hour weeknights on pbs. >> earlier this fall, the defense department missed a deadline to stop using a firefighting foam thataused widespread contamination across the country. while the military continues its transition away from the toxic foam, it is also beginning a massive cleanup which will take decades and billions of dollars. in the small town of estrada, michigan a group of citizens has been fighting to hold the air force accountable for contaminating their waterways. in the first of a two part series, special correspondent megan thompson brings us their story. >> tony and his family have been coming to their vacation home on a van in lake for decades, a relaxing getaway in

northern michigan but in 2016 he received a troubling letter from the estate. >> from the department of health and human services saying, don't drink your water. >> one year later they began to notice something strange on the lake. >> it was december and my wife woke up and said i think it snowed last night. there was foam piled up all along the shoreline. you could see it for miles. >> he learned his tapwater, the lake, and the bright, white foam were all contaminated with toxic man-made chemicals. >> it is sensitive to a different place. it's shocking. the base is across the lake. you can see the buildings. >> it turned out the chemicals were coming from the old air force base. >> it was a training area. >> mark henry is a retired environmental engineer for the state of michigan that worked at the base after it closed in 1993. >> there used to be a big

concrete ball out here with simulated aircraft on it and they would bring the fire trucks in and let people practice. >> practice putting out jet fuel fire is dowsing the burning planes with a special military foam used in the military since the 1970's made from a chemical called p-fas. courtney carrigan is an environmental epidemiologist at michigan state university who studies human exposure to chemicals. >> characterized by a chain of carbons with fluorine bond and a functional group. one and likes water and the other does not, it repels it. >> the useful properties mean they are contained in all kinds of common products like nonstick pans, stain resistant carpet, and food packaging. there are about 15,000 types of p-fas and increasing the research shows they can cause health problems from liver damage to heart disease and cancer. >> they are often called forever chemicals because they are so persistent in the environment.

they do not break down naturally. they move easily into water and groundwater and end up in fish and drinking water. >> today about 50% of the nation's drinking water supply has p-fas in it and nearly every american has some level of p-fas in their blood. the military is one of the biggest p-fas polluters in the u.s. but the problem is only now becoming known. in 2000 a colleague of mark henry's made the discovery and it sounded the alarm. today the pentagon confirms or suspects pfas concomitant -- contamination at almost 700 other sites. >> there is almost no place you can dig a hole on the base and not find pfas in the groundwater even to this day 50 years after the release. >> the groundwater does not stay

on the base. >> these plumes are flowing from the former base. >> seeping for years into nearby streams, lakes, and the tapwater of some homeowners like tony. >> right there. >> a politically connected attorney, he was so alarmed he teamed up to launch "need our water" and call attention to the environmental carla -- calamity. they gave pbs a tour of the areas most affected by the pfas. >> this is a ymca camp owned by detroit. >> the water is coming off the base from the storm sewers flowing uninterrupted into the saddle river. >> tests found pfas levels more than 50 times higher than allowed by michigan law. today we visited dozens were swimming andoating nearby. about one mile away is a wildlife area called clarks

marsh where birds have been found with some of the highest levels of pfas contamination ever documented. there are five health advisory for the area warning to not eat any fish you catch or animals you hunt. >> this lake is highly contaminated on the surface. when the wind agitates the surface of the water the foam can build up. >> tests by the state foundpfas levels in the phone as -- in the foam as high as 200,000 parts per trillion. the epa standards for drinking water allow for four parts per trillion. this lake and the other contaminated streams drain into lake huron, a source of drinking water for 10 million people in the u.s. and canada. contaminated foam has been found on its shores too. >> we can't afford to allow this land, this natural resource to be poisonous for years and years

and years to come. it has to stop. >> they spent the last seven years lobbying congress and the pentagon to clean up the mess. >> theyan stop the flow of all the plumes of the property now. >> fort smith is one of the first places and in a country where that pfas of the pollution is treated. at air force recently announced delays in cleaning the rest. some systems won't beperating for another four or five years. >> it is a slow motion. it's molasses on a cold winter day. >> a citizens advisory board meets with the air force every three months to provide input. the meetings have become increasingly contentious. >> we feel abandoned. >> it is like you are >> cooking

the books. at a meeting in august board members invented frustration about the delays and said the cleanup was mismanaged accusing the military of not conducting enough testing before it started building the latest treatment system this summer. >> the air force did an extremely minimal amount of work to demonstrate the wells that were planning on putting in are actually in the right place. >> they are only treating 25% of the known problem. they have no idea, really, what exists beyond. >> under pressure, the air force released the results of an independent review at the latest community meeting this week confirming concerns about the new system saying more testing is needed to make sure that all pfas will be captured. air force official pressure announced a shakeup in the management of the clean up and said new leadership will do better. >> argument we will increase transparency. -- i commit we will increase transparency and work hard accelerating the timeline.

>> tony appreciates the new direction but does not plan to let up the pressure. he says fort smith needs to set the example for the rest of the nation. >> is our government doesn't do it right what does that say to other communities impacted? it is a critical battle we are fighting here. >> for pbs news weekend. >> it has been nearly two months since hurricane helene devastated communities across the southeast and experts say that the storm's effects on children might last for years to come. >> tens of thousands of children and young adults have dealt with disruptions at home and school following hurricane helene and hurricane milton. researchers from boston college found up to 70% of students could show sympms of ptsd in the first three months following such disasters.

the director of the national hazard center at the university of colorado, boulder it studies how children and a socially marginalized populations fare after disasters. thank you for being here. what are the recovery processes for children after they have gone through a hurricane like this? >> there is no one single trajectory that children follow after a disaster. their recovery is influenced by multiple factors. how much damage their community, their school, their home sustained. how disrupted their lives are in the aftermath of the disaster. how much socialupport they receive. the good in this is we have good information about what can help children recover after a disaster and get them back into a stable routine, back into a school, back to a better situation even after a catastrophic event like hurricane helene or hurricane milton. >> what strategies can help

children get back on track? >> some things that really help children in the aftermath of disaster ilude getting back into a routine. that can be a really hard thing when a home is damaged or destroyed, when a school is closed for a period of time. when parents have lost work. or, when there is other disruption around the children. also, providing social support to children, ensuring the support comes from multiple angles in their lives. so, the support comes from trusted loved ones in the family, that tears are available. peer support networks can be very important especially to adolescents and teens and also that children receive support through their schools. that is of the utmost important. >> what are signs of distress young people might show in the wake of a natural disaster that adults might miss? >> our research after hurricane

katrina revealed sometimes children, and especially adolescents and teens may hide their distress from adults in their lives. we have learned after katrina that a lot of young people were doing this because they saw how distressed and how disrupted their parents, their teachers, other trusted adults in their lives, how much of a struggle they were having. we learn from the kids themselves that often they were trying to not talk about that distress, to suppress it so they would not bird adults in their lives. -- would not burden adults in their lives. the lesson from that if you are an adult is to do everything you can to listen to your child and ask them how they are doing and not just a sort of one and done, but regularly check in with your child or with the children that you teach, or care for, to make sure that they are doing ok. again, children, like adults

don't follow one straight path after a disaster. they might feel ok one day and then another day have a really hard day. very young children. sometimes they might regress. they might start engaging in bedwetting. they might become very clingy. as children get older, they might start acting out. they might turn inwards. a previously very outgoing child might stop beving in that way if things seem really serious, doing everything you can to get your child to that school counselor or another mental health professional to make sure they are doing ok and getting support that they need. >> we talk a lot about investments needed in infrastructure to better protect our communities from a massive weather events. what about the mental health side? is it something communities should invest more in as a preventative measure as we see more and more intense weather events?

>> absolutely. every investment we can make before a disaster, that investment can pay off multiple times, many times over after the disaster, whether as you are suggesting it is in hardening our infrastructure making sure all of the schools, homes, businesses that make up a child's community that they are not so badly damaged or destroyed in a disaster. infrastructure investments do matter and make a difference. and it is important to make sure we are investing in social infrastructure, various aspects that make up a child's life, making sure we are properly funding mental health services, ensuring there are spaces for children to be involved before a disaster even happens. to be involved in their community, to be involved in the schools, to make sure they have strong social networks around them.

having somebody that the child can turn to after the disaster can be absolutely critical in terms of mitigating the negative mental health impacts. so anything we can do before the disaster is of the utmost importance. >> the director of the natural haza center at the university of colorado boulder, thank you for being here. >> that is our program for tonight. for all of my colleagues, thank you for joining us. i will see you tomorrow. >> major funding for pbs news weekend provided by. 100% u.s.-based customer support. consumer cellular. freedom calls.

>> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> kate: anne, evelin and i are talking to people in the trades, the life sciences, tech, manufacturing and hospitality. >>anne: after i graduated, i applied to jobs