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Progressive leader Bernie Sanders warns Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions could spark a “real public health crisis for America.”
September 1, 2025 – MANCHESTER, N.H. – Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Monday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should resign from President Donald Trump’s administration, warning that if he does not, Americans must speak out.
“We’ve got to rally the American people. This is a huge issue,” Sanders told Fox News Digital.
Sanders, the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, emphasized, “I’m not a scientist, I’m not a doctor, but I do talk to scientists, and I do talk to doctors, and the evidence is overwhelming. It’s not contestable. Vaccines work. They save millions and millions of lives.”
He cautioned that “if Kennedy and his friends are able to make people think that vaccines are not safe, it will be a real public health crisis for America.”
Kennedy, a longtime environmental activist and vaccine skeptic whom Trump appointed as health secretary in his second term, has faced mounting criticism from lawmakers and health experts.
“Mr. Kennedy and the rest of the Trump administration tell us, over and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a great slogan. I agree with it. The problem is that since coming into office, President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have done exactly the opposite,” Sanders wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.
He added, “Despite the overwhelming opposition of the medical community, Secretary Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts.”
Sanders’ call came days after CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired less than a month after her confirmation. She reportedly refused Kennedy’s directives to impose new restrictions on certain vaccines, including COVID-19 shots. Four senior CDC officials resigned in protest, accusing Kennedy and the Trump administration of undermining public health.
Sanders condemned Kennedy’s claim that “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” pointing out that “not credible scientists and doctors” back his views. He noted that one of Kennedy’s cited experts on autism and vaccines had lost his medical license and had his study retracted.
While some members of Congress joined in bipartisan criticism of Kennedy, the White House defended Monarez’s firing. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president has the “authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”
Leavitt added that Trump and Kennedy are “committed to restoring trust and transparency and credibility to the CDC by ensuring their leadership and their decisions are more public-facing, more accountable, strengthening our public health system and restoring it to its core mission of protecting Americans from communicable diseases, investing in innovation to prevent, detect and respond to future threats.”
