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More than 1,000 current and former Department of Health and Human Services employees signed a letter on Wednesday condemning Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s leadership and calling on him to resign for “compromising the health of this nation.”
The letter, also sent to members of Congress, followed a turbulent week at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which Kennedy oversees. The Trump administration announced the firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, leading to the resignations of four other senior officials. Reports indicated Monarez was forced out after refusing to approve new vaccine restrictions.
“Secretary Kennedy continues to endanger the nation’s health,” the employees wrote. They pointed to Monarez’s removal, the departure of longtime CDC leaders, the appointment of “political ideologues” to key roles, and the rollback of the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines.
This is not the first time employees have raised concerns. Last month, more than 750 current and former HHS staff sent a letter after the Aug. 8 shooting at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, urging Kennedy to “cease endangering the nation’s health by spreading inaccurate health information, affirm CDC’s scientific integrity, and guarantee the safety of the HHS workforce.”
In response to that letter, an HHS spokesperson said Kennedy “is standing firmly with CDC employees — both on the ground and across every center — ensuring their safety and well-being remain a top priority.” The spokesperson added, “For the first time in its 70-year history, the mission of HHS is truly resonating with the American people — driven by President [Donald] Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s bold commitment to Make America Healthy Again. Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.”
This week’s signers, some of whom chose to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, stressed that they wrote the letter in their personal capacities and on their own time, without government resources. “Should he decline to resign, we call 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,” they wrote.
Kennedy is also facing pressure from members of Congress. Following Monarez’s dismissal, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called on the White House to fire him. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., citing Kennedy’s “longstanding crusade against vaccines and his advocacy of conspiracy theories that have been rejected repeatedly by scientific experts,” also called for his resignation in a New York Times opinion piece.
Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Monarez’s departure and the resignations of other senior CDC officials “will require oversight by the HELP committee.”
