Docs Explore Allergy Surge, Bill Gates Addresses Epstein Ties, Crockett Surges in TX: AM Update 2/26

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0:32Good morning, everyone. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party and the Megyn Kelly Wrap-Up Show on SiriusXM channel 111. It's Thursday, February 26th, 2026, and this is your AM update. We made a terrible, tragic mistake as a medical profession, giving parents the wrong recommendation to avoid peanut and other allergens until a child turns three years of age. FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary bringing together leading researchers and physicians to examine what's driving the surge in food allergies and how to stop it. We are now the most chronically ill, high-income nation in the world. This public health crisis is touching every American family.

1:14Dr. Casey Means facing senators in her confirmation hearing to become the next Surgeon General. Bill Gates acknowledging his ties to Jeffrey Epstein were a huge mistake while saying he never witnessed anything illegal. And new poll numbers show Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett surging in the race for the Democrat Senate nomination in Texas. All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM Update.

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3:02Food allergies today affecting roughly one in 10 adults and one in 13 children, reshaping daily life for parents, schools, and communities, from allergen-free classrooms to the growing financial burden of life-saving medications like EpiPens. Yesterday, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary convening a high-level expert panel on food allergies, bringing together leading researchers and physicians to examine what's driving the surge and how to stop it. If you haven't noticed, society over the last 25 years has transformed. Kids with a peanut or food allergy now sit at their own table, or they can or cannot go into certain rooms or participate in certain activities in society.

3:46Food and peanut allergies are real. They need to be taken seriously. What happened? When we were kids, hardly anyone had a peanut or food allergy. Something happened. And look at the result. Kids can't go out for ice cream their entire childhood for fear that the scooper has been cross-contaminated and not rinsed appropriately after being used in a nut-based flavor. Schools and families have been burdened by the cost of having an EpiPen at all times, everywhere they go. Peanut allergies in particular becoming the scourge of many elementary schools, with Dr. McCary pointing to past medical guidance that made the problem worse.

4:31We made a terrible, tragic mistake as a medical profession, giving parents the wrong recommendation to avoid peanut and other allergens until a child turns three years of age, ignoring a basic principle in immunology known as oral tolerance, whereby the body's developing immune system benefits from exposures to allergens as early as five, six, seven months of age. And we now know from good research published by some of the experts here that that helps significantly reduce peanut allergies and other food allergies later in life. Our job today is not to look back. It's to look ahead, to talk about prevention, best practices, the latest science and new therapeutics that can help the kids suffering from these allergies.

5:22Dr. Gideon Lack and Dr. Ruchi Gupta, two of the nation's leading allergy experts, noting today's medical guidance returns to an earlier principle, introducing potential allergens early rather than avoiding them. Babies require early exposure through the gastrointestinal tract to achieve tolerance. And throughout history and throughout millennia, that's what parents did with their children. They gave them the foods that they ate. For decades now, we've been managing prevention and treatment with avoidance. And I would just like to point out that the pediolum has shifted now, where we are exposing early to prevent and diagnose early and treat early.

6:11It is challenging for parents to introduce multiple foods. And we want to be careful about medicalizing food allergy in early infants when life is already so complicated, raising a baby. So I think currently the best way to put it is if your family is eating a food in their diet, it's part of your family food, then introduce it to your baby. We spoke to Commissioner McCary about the expert panel. He tells us a diet filled with ultra processed foods is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to reducing the rate of food allergies. We're fairly certain that there is a link between what a child consumes and these many diseases that have expanded in the last 20 years.

6:59And if you look at one common thread, it's the fact that the diet of children starting in our generation has become highly ultra processed with new chemicals and exposures that were never seen before in human history. And so this is where we need to put research dollars. So we want to increase education. We want people to be more aware. We want them to know best practices. We want them to know where the data is solid and where we are just winging it as a medical profession. And we want there to be new therapeutics in this field to help those who are suffering right now with the consequences of peanut and fruit allergies.

7:38Dr. McCary tells us the longstanding medical consensus that urged families to avoid allergens, guidance many now believe did more harm than good, is an example of a broader pattern in medicine. It's a hazard of groupthink. And we've seen it not just with peanut allergy recommendations being wrong, but also with the dogma that opioids were not addictive. We got that wrong for 20 years. the dogma that saturated fat is what kills you and causes heart disease. We got that wrong for 50 years. It was the basis of the old food pyramid that we just recently rewrote in this administration. And there have been other dogmas.

8:18You saw it during the COVID pandemic that a kid had to avoid school for nearly two years or wear a cloth mask at the age of two years of age for years, COVID boosters and young, healthy children. So we have to be aware that we are prone to medical groupthink today, just as we had been in the past. Dr. McCary describing how the Trump administration is attempting to break that pattern. We're changing the funding at the National Institutes of Health. We're changing it from the traditional treatment-only focus to also studying the root causes. It's been kind of an open secret that as we've transformed the U.S.

8:59food supply to be high in junk food and chemicalized foods, that we've also ushered in an epidemic of chronic diseases. So this is where we can get a lot of bang for our buck in investing in research ideas. And I personally like the ideas that are sometimes not very popular. The ideas that only get one vote in the scientific selection committee, the grants that come through, and the old guard establishment thinks it's not a good idea, but one or two researchers on the team, maybe younger scientists, think there may be something there. We need fresh new ideas when it comes to research because we've got to try new approaches, and in fact, most great scientific discoveries have come from big ideas from a fresh perspective.

9:50Meanwhile, Dr. Casey Means facing senators yesterday in her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to become the next Surgeon General. The hearing originally scheduled for October, but postponed after Means went into labor the morning she was set to testify. Means is the sister of top RFK junior advisor Callie Means. A 2009 graduate of Stanford University, Means later earning her MD from Stanford University School of Medicine, on track to become a highly specialized surgeon before leaving her residency in her fifth year. Means since rededicating her career around combating the nation's chronic disease epidemic, arguing the medical establishment focuses too heavily on treatment and not enough on root causes, means here delivering her opening statement.

10:41We are now the most chronically ill high-income nation in the world. We live shorter, sicker lives than pure high-income nations. We spend trillions annually on reactive sick care. Nearly 150 million Americans are on federal healthcare programs and we spend$50 billion per year on research. Yet outcomes are worsening and disparities are widening. This public health crisis is touching every American family. It is robbing our children of possibility, our workforce of productivity, and our nation of security. Public health leaders must address the evidence-based, modifiable drivers of chronic diseases, which include ultra-processed foods, industrial chemical exposure, lack of physical activity, chronic stress and loneliness, and over-medicalization.

11:31Democrat Senator Patty Murray of Washington questioning means on past comments made about birth control. You called birth control pills, I'm going to quote, a disrespect of life. And you said Americans, quote, use birth control pills like candy. Should women trust the FDA, which approved all 18 methods of birth control? Or should they trust your statement that there are horrifying health risks to birth control? I absolutely believe these medications should be accessible to all women. And also, all medications have risks and benefits. And some of the horrifying side effects of birth control that I have mentioned include blood clots and stroke risk in women who have clotting disorders, who are smokers.

12:17So I'm very careful with my words. And when I say those comments, which are taken out of comment, out of context, I'm speaking about particular women that can be heard if there is not informed consent about their medical history. I want those women, and I know you do, too, to be able to have a thorough conversation with their doctor and know whether they are at higher risk for side effects. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a Republican and medical doctor, asking means about her beliefs on the potential link between vaccines and autism. Do you believe that vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism?

12:52The reality is that we have an autism crisis that's increasing. And this is devastating to many families. And we do not know, as a medical community, what causes autism. The administration has just committed a huge amount of funding to look at the exposome of all environmental factors that could be contributing to autism. And until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned. There's been a lot of evidence showing that they're not implicated. Do you not accept that evidence? I do accept that evidence. I also think that science is never settled.

13:29FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty McCary tells us Casey Means is exactly the kind of thinker this administration needs. She's one who can speak both as a surgical subspecialist and as a holistic primary care physician who talks about food and the importance of natural sunlight and the types of grains that we eat. This is the type of expertise that is badly lacking in modern education. People who are in the medical field often have to seek it out on their own. And she is one of the great role models of physicians who have sought out that information, become an expert in much of it, and is leading the charge on the importance of food and healthy living.

14:15Coming up, Bill Gates apologizing for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, calling the relationship a huge mistake. New polling indicates Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett surging in the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate in Texas.

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15:13Find out more at GuardYourCard.com and consider telling Congress to guard your card. Bill Gates apologizing to staff at the Gates Foundation on Tuesday for what he called a, quote, huge mistake in associating with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, acknowledging that the relationship cast a cloud over the foundation, according to the Wall Street Journal's exclusive reporting. Speaking at a town hall, Gates admitted to meeting Epstein multiple times between 2011 and 2014, years after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes involving a minor. Gates saying he was aware Epstein faced legal trouble, including some, quote, 18-month thing limiting Epstein's travel, but did not properly investigate his background, and continued associating with him even after then-wife Melinda French Gates in 2013 raised concerns.

16:04From Gates, quote, knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it's clear there was ongoing bad behavior. Gates confirming he flew with Epstein on a private jet to multiple locations, though saying he never stayed overnight, and he never visited Epstein's island. The renewed scrutiny coming as newly released DOJ documents include emails showing Epstein referencing Gates's alleged extramarital affairs and suggesting he could expose them in a dispute involving one of Gates's former science advisors. Gates acknowledging during the town hall that he had two affairs with Russian women, one a bridge player he met around 2010, the other a nuclear physicist linked to one of his companies, but insisting, quote, quote, I did nothing illicit.

16:50I saw nothing illicit. Gates saying photos in the Epstein files showing him with redacted women were of Epstein's assistance after meetings taken at Epstein's request. The Microsoft founder insisting, quote, to be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him. Gates spokesperson previously denying other allegations stemming from the newly released files, including claims that Gates requested help from Epstein in secretly slipping wife Melinda STI medication, quote, absurd and completely false. With the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate in Texas just five days away, a new poll shows Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett holding a double digit lead over state representative James Tallarico.

17:35Crockett, known for her combative style and vibrant clashes on Capitol Hill. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody's bleach blonde, bad-built butch body that would not be engaging in personalities, correct? She's facing off against Tallarico, leaning into what he calls, quote, joyful politics, often invoking his background as a Presbyterian minister in training. Being a Christian is about loving thy neighbor, not bullying LGBTQ people. According to the University of Texas's Texas Politics Project survey, conducted among likely Democrat primary voters, Crockett leads 56 percent to Tallarico's 44 percent.

18:14The poll fielded just before early voting began last week. Turnouts so far reportedly surging compared to past Texas Democrat primaries, but the top line only telling part of the story. In the crosstabs, Tallarico performing far better with independents who say they plan to vote in the Democrat primary, leading Crockett by 20 points, 60 to 40. Within the core Democratic electorate, however, Crockett maintains the advantage, 57 % to 43%. Crockett's strongest support coming from Black voters, where she leads by an overwhelming margin, 87 % to 12%. Tallarico doing slightly better among whites edging out Crockett 53 to 47.

18:56CNN speaking to one white early voter who explained her decision to back Tallarico. So yes, we need a fighter. And I was so ready to vote for Jasmine Crockett because I love her. But I voted for Tallarico because we need somebody who can win. That clip quickly going viral online, with critics arguing it reveals uncomfortable tension among Democrats about their views on race and electability. Back at the crosstabs, Crockett leading among women by 20 points, 60 to 40. Among men, the race is essentially even, 51 Crockett to Tallarico's 49. Tallarico dominating among younger voters, winning 73 % of 18 to 29-year-olds compared to Crockett's 27%.

19:43In the real clear polling average, Crockett now leading by three points, with the last three surveys all showing momentum in her direction. On the Republican side, in the same University of Texas poll, among likely GOP primary voters, the race is far tighter. Attorney General Ken Paxton holding a narrow lead at 36%. Incumbent Senator John Cornyn close behind at 34, Congressman Wesley Hunt at 26. Among independents who say they plan to vote in the Republican primary, Paxton expanding his advantage, pulling 44 % support compared to Cornyn's 27 and Hunt's 20. In the real clear polling average, Paxton leading by 2.7 points, coming out ahead in the last four surveys, including one that had him ahead by seven.

20:30Election day set for March 3rd. If a candidate fails to secure at least 50 % of the vote, the top two candidates go on to a runoff election set for May 26th. That'll do it for your AM update. I'm Emily Jashinsky, host of After Party. Catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM's The Megyn Kelly Channel 111 at noon east. On YouTube.com slash Megyn Kelly and on all podcast platforms.

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