Public health experts across the U.S. are speaking out after Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services Secretary, doubled down on his highly controversial changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Overall, the Secretary is rapidly transforming CDC from a public health and scientific agency to one that is firmly controlled politically,” Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told NBC News.
What’s happening?
It has been quite the couple of weeks for Kennedy. Following the firing of the CDC director and a combative appearance before Congress, during which he was grilled by members of both parties, a group of nine former CDC directors wrote a scathing op-ed published in The New York Times.
“What the Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has done to the CDC and to our nation’s public health system over the past few months — culminating in his decision to fire Susan Monarez as CDC director days ago — is unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced,” wrote the former CDC directors, who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The former directors accused Kennedy of forcing his own political and personal views onto the CDC in unprecedented ways.
“When Mr. Kennedy administered the oath of office to Dr. Monarez on July 31, he called her ‘a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials.’ But when she refused weeks later to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demands to fire senior CDC staff members he decided she was expendable,” they wrote in the Times.
Drawing on their decades of collective public health experience, the former directors argued that Kennedy’s actions were far from normal.
“These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a CDC director. Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary’s demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities,” the nine former directors continued.
Further, they wrote that Kennedy had “canceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies.”
Rather than concede any ground, Kennedy pushed back in an op-ed of his own, saying in the Wall Street Journal that “over the decades, bureaucratic inertia, politicized science, and mission creep have … squandered public trust” in the CDC.
Why does it matter?
In the aftermath of Kennedy’s op-ed, public health experts sounded the alarm over what they have seen as his reckless, politicized approach. They argued that Kennedy’s tactics and policies have imperiled public health and could have devastating consequences.
“Mr. Kennedy is gutting the CDC’s ability to respond to infectious diseases, working to undermine trust in it, and not doing anything to improve trust,” said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine policy expert at the University of California Law San Francisco, according to NBC News.
Others agreed.
Gostin, of Georgetown University, said that Kennedy was exploiting people’s frustration with the COVID-19 pandemic to attack the CDC, even blaming the agency for actions over which it had no control. In his op-ed, the health secretary blamed CDC for COVID-era lockdowns and shuttered schools.
“CDC has no power to order economic lockdowns or school closures,” Gostin said, according to NBC News. “Those were purely state decisions.
What’s being done about it?
Despite facing bipartisan backlash from Congress and widespread condemnation from public health experts, Kennedy appeared to still have the support of the current administration.
While Kennedy has made clear that he does not intend to back down anytime soon, widespread opposition to the secretary and his policies could force the administration to make a change.
To help make a difference, you can use your voice and contact your elected representatives to let them know how you feel about recent changes at the CDC. And when the next elections take place, you can vote for candidates who support science-based health policies.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
