Dive Brief:
- More than 1,000 current and former HHS employees are calling on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to resign as HHS secretary, accusing him of being a danger to U.S. health and a source of instability at the federal healthcare department.
- The letter sent to Kennedy Wednesday morning comes at a time of tumult for the HHS — especially at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is reeling from the firing of Director Susan Monarez and the departure of several senior CDC leaders last week.
- Signees, some of whom remained anonymous for fear of retribution, also said Kennedy failed to respond to a separate letter from hundreds of HHS employees asking him to protect staffers after a shooting at the CDC in late August.
Dive Insight:
Kennedy’s tenure as HHS secretary has been defined by controversy, including his dramatic reshaping of the department, firing thousands of employees and halting grants for medical research. Kennedy’s actions, coupled with his history of anti-science rhetoric — especially against vaccines — and comments attacking his own employees, have raised significant concerns about his appointment for some scientists, public health experts and lawmakers.
Worries about Kennedy ratcheted up this summer as the secretary pursued major changes to U.S. vaccine policy, including dismissing members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an influential panel that advises the government on vaccines. Kennedy replaced them with multiple people critical of or lacking expertise in vaccines.
Kennedy has also defunded research into messenger RNA vaccines, which underpinned the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, and boosted a supporter of theories saying vaccines cause autism, a claim with no scientific basis.
Then, last week, Kennedy fired Monarez, who was confirmed as CDC director by the Senate a month ago. Monarez’s lawyer said she was ousted due to her refusal to “rubber stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” Specifically, Monarez and Kennedy clashed because she resisted the secretary’s efforts to control vaccine guidance, according to Stat News.
Four high-level CDC leaders quit after Monarez departed, with some citing concerns about the HHS’ direction under Kennedy.
Kennedy has also been criticized for failing to respond adequately to a shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Aug. 8. The shooting, which caused the death of a police officer, appears to have been motivated by anger and distrust about COVID vaccines, a sentiment that has been driven by political rhetoric villainizing public health workers — including from Kennedy, according to HHS staffers.
With Wednesday’s letter, the HHS employees are joining calls from other organizations, including the American Public Health Association and National Nurses United, for Kennedy to resign.
“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,” the 1,040 HHS staffers wrote in the letter, adding later: “We demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.”
Criticism of Kennedy is also coming from former heads of the CDC. On Monday, nine former CDC directors spanning both Republican and Democratic administrations since the 1970s accused Kennedy of endangering Americans’ health in an opinion piece published in the New York Times.
Kennedy maintains that his actions are meant to restore public trust in the HHS that was lost during COVID, reduce corporate influence in federal decision-making, including around vaccine access, and eliminate bureaucratic inefficiency.
“We have already taken steps to eliminate conflicts of interest and bureaucratic complacency. We have shaken up the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. We have replaced leaders who resisted reform,” Kennedy wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday. “Most CDC rank-and-file staff are honest public servants. Under this renewed mission, they can do their jobs as scientists without bowing to politics.”
“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,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon told Healthcare Dive in response to the letter.
Nixon did not share if Kennedy plans to respond to the letter. The letter also asked President Donald Trump and Congress to appoint a new HHS secretary if Kennedy declines to step down.
Organizing group Save HHS also sent the letter to members of Congress, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who cast a key vote to confirm Kennedy in February despite unease around Kennedy’s history of promoting vaccine misinformation.
Following the leadership turmoil at the CDC last week, Cassidy said the departures will “require oversight” in a post on X.
