RFK Jr.’s public health policies pose risk to public health, six former surgeons generals warn
Six former U.S. surgeons general are warning that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions are “endangering the health of the nation.”
The former officials, who worked under Democratic and Republican presidents, said they felt “compelled” to come together and warn of the “profound, immediate and unprecedented threat” that his policies pose to the nation.
Their column, published in The Washington Post, is written by Drs. Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello and David Satcher. Dr. Adams was the surgeon general in President Trump’s first term.
“Over recent months, we have watched with increasing alarm as the foundations of our nation’s public health system have been undermined. Science and expertise have taken a back seat to ideology and misinformation,” they wrote. “Morale has plummeted in our health agencies, and talent is fleeing at a time when we face rising threats — from resurgent infectious diseases to worsening chronic illnesses.”
They wrote that a new leader is needed to repair the damage Mr. Kennedy has done to the health field.
“Instead, Kennedy has become a driving force behind this crisis,” they wrote.
HHS responded with a statement from Andrew Nixon, the department’s communications director: “The same officials who presided over the decline in America’s public health are now criticizing the first Secretary to confront it head-on. We remain committed to restoring trust, reforming broken health systems, and ensuring that every American has access to real choice in their health care.”
The surgeons general noted Mr. Kennedy’s history of pushing “dangerous and discredited claims” that vaccines are dangerous, “most notoriously” that childhood vaccines cause autism. They said he has promoted misinformation about the HPV vaccines and “repeatedly misrepresented” risks of mRNA technology and the coronavirus vaccine.
Other health experts and Kennedy family members have called for Mr. Kennedy to resign since he was confirmed in February.
In June, he removed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory board. The new advisory committee said it will stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for adults, including for seniors and announced a new safety protocol for toddlers who receive the chickenpox vaccine. The CDC on Monday said it would follow the board’s guidance on both the COVID-19 and chickenpox vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy and the president alarmed some experts last month when they linked autism to the use of Tylenol during pregnancy.
“This move,” the surgeons general wrote, “has been widely condemned by the scientific and medical communities, who have pointed out that the available research is inconclusive and insufficient to justify such a warning. … Instead of helping pregnant women make informed decisions during a critical period in their lives, Kennedy’s decisions risk causing confusion, fear and harm.”
The surgeons general wrote that they are “clear-eyed about the fact that these systems need to be improved … but reform must be grounded in truth, transparency and scientific evidence.”
They added, “Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk.”
