Twenty-one medical and public health organizations are demanding that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. step down from his position as the head of the federal health department, citing what they call his efforts to "undermine science and public health."
The public statement from more than 20 organizations comes as about 1,000 former and current staffers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also are calling for RFK Jr.'s resignation, warning that he "continues to endanger the nation’s health."
"We are gravely concerned that American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of policies that turn away from sound interventions. After careful consideration, we insist on Kennedy’s resignation to restore the integrity, credibility and science-driven mission of HHS and all its agencies," the Infectious Diseases Society of America wrote in the letter, which was signed by the American Public Health Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the American Academy of HIV Medicine and 17 other public health, scientific and medical organizations signed a joint statement.
In a statement issued to Fierce Healthcare Thursday, HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said, "Secretary Kennedy has been clear: the CDC has been broken for a long time. Restoring it as the world’s most trusted guardian of public health will take sustained reform and more personnel changes. From his first day in office, he pledged to check his assumptions at the door—and he asked every HHS colleague to do the same. That commitment to evidence-based science is why, in just seven months, he and the HHS team have accomplished more than any health secretary in history in the fight to end the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."
The calls for RFK Jr.'s resignation have grown following a chaotic week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Late last week, the HHS named Jim O'Neill, currently a deputy HHS secretary, as interim director to lead the CDC after Susan Monarez, Ph.D., was fired from her position at the helm of the agency.
Several of the CDC's top career scientists resigned in protest to Monarez's firing. Monday, nine former directors of the CDC, who worked under both Republicans and Democrats, condemned HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership of the agency in an op-ed in The New York Times.
RFK Jr. countered with his own op-ed, published in The Wall Street Journal, saying that he was focused on restoring "the CDC’s focus on infectious disease, invest[ing] in innovation, and rebuild[ing] trust through integrity and transparency."
Recent weeks have seen the CDC embroiled with turmoil amid a targeted shooting, employee terminations, revoked union recognition and some controversial decisions around vaccines.
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has called for the White House to fire Kennedy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, also called for his resignation in an opinion piece published in The New York Times.
In their public statement, the 22 organizations outlined actions that RFK Jr. has taken as HHS secretary that they claim puts individuals' health at risk, including actions that impact food safety, diagnostic testing, infection tracking, vaccination, emergency response and support for local and state health departments.
The organizations cited a lack of information about what infections are circulating in local communities, which healthcare providers rely upon to evaluate and protect patients and a loss of expertise and trust in "what was once the premier source of information to support clinicians and empower patients to make the best decisions to protect themselves and their families."
The groups said RFK Jr.'s actions have weakened initiatives that promote healthy behaviors, preventive care and community-based projects to prevent and manage chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. They also cited decisions that have reversed progress made in ending the HIV epidemic, eliminating viral hepatitis and addressing sexually transmitted infections.
The HHS has "decimated capacity to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations and objectively oversee vaccine safety. State and local health departments have lost expert guidance, technical support and resources to protect communities from routine health threats, the organizations said.
"Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe. We are speaking out because protecting public health is our responsibility as physicians, scientists and patient advocates," the organizations wrote. "It is also the responsibility of our elected officials, and we call for their support at this critical moment to protect the health of the nation. It is time to reverse course and begin rebuilding the public health infrastructure overseen by CDC. Kennedy has proven himself unwilling and ill-prepared to lead that effort."
Last month, several hundred current and former HHS employees signed on to an open letter criticizing RFK Jr. for “dangerous and deceitful statements and actions” they say villainize public health workers and contributed to the Aug. 8 attack on the CDC's headquarters.
Since the letter's release Aug. 20, the number of signatories has grown to 6,370, with 1,000 from the HHS.
The letter, which was also addressed to members of Congress, the employees and other signers said that RFK Jr.’s actions "are compromising the health of this nation" and they demanded his resignation. Should he decline to resign, they called upon the President and U.S. Congress to appoint a new Secretary of Health and Human Services, "one whose qualifications and experience ensure that health policy is informed by independent and unbiased peer-reviewed science."
"To be clear, the HHS workforce is nonpartisan, implementing science-based policies developed under both Republican and Democratic administrations. We believe health policy should be based on strong, evidence-based principles rather than partisan politics. But under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS policies are placing the health of all Americans at risk, regardless of their politics," they wrote.
The HHS employees cited Monarez's firing, the resignations of top CDC scientific leaders and the appointment of Retsef Levi, who has opposed mRNA vaccines, as the lead of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ COVID-19 work group, as actions that RFK Jr. has taken that undermine public health.
They also cited RFK Jr.'s decision to appoint David Geier, a supporter of debunked theories linking vaccines to autism, to lead an HHS investigation on vaccines and autism.
The HHS employees said RFK Jr. refuses to be briefed by well-regarded CDC experts on vaccine-preventable diseases and they cited his decision to rescind the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines "without providing the data or methods used to reach such a decision."