Guardian Letter says Kennedy installed ideologues, endangered US health and ignored pleas as resignations mounted at CDC. A letter published on Wednesday from more than 1,000 past and present workers of the Department of Health and Human Services department (HHS) has demanded the resignation of Robert F Kennedy Jr, insisting the health secretary’s attacks on vaccines endangered the lives of all Americans.
The hard-hitting letter, addressed to Congress members, blames Kennedy for turmoil at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including the firing of the agency’s chief and replacement by a Donald Trump loyalist with no medical or scientific background.
It comes two days after nine former CDC officials wrote in a New York Times guest essay that Kennedy’s leadership, and ousting of the CDC director, Susan Monarez, months after he appointed her, was “unacceptable” and “unlike anything we have ever seen”.