Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership is “unlike anything our country has ever experienced,” nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay Monday for The New York Times.
The piece — which appeared online under the headline “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health” — came days after President Donald Trump fired CDC director Susan Monarez. Through her lawyers, Monarez has maintained she refused to sign off on reckless and unscientific orders.
Kennedy’s actions as the country’s top health official, including his role in Monarez’s ouster, “is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced,” the former directors wrote.
Their essay listed a string of concerns and accused Kennedy of focusing “on unproven ‘treatments’ while downplaying vaccines.” Kennedy, they added, “canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements.”
HHS and CDC spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The essay was signed by William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen. Their tenures date to the late 1970s and span Democratic and Republican administrations, including Trump’s first term.
Monarez’s firing last week came amid an escalating conflict over an influential vaccine committee that Kennedy had repeatedly undermined, NBC News reported. The secretary had fired committee members and appointed fellow vaccine skeptics in their place. Monarez had grown worried that she would be forced to sign off on new vaccine recommendations that were not supported by science. Her ouster triggered a near-immediate leadership exodus from the CDC.
“We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security,” the former directors wrote in their guest essay.
“During our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers,” they added.
The former directors urged Congress to “exercise its oversight authority” over HHS and called on state and local governments and philanthropic givers to “fill funding gaps where they can.”
“The men and women who have joined C.D.C. across generations have done so not for prestige or power, but because they believe deeply in the call to service,” they wrote in conclusion. “They deserve an H.H.S. secretary who stands up for health, supports science and has their back. So, too, does our country.”
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