Nine former leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) accused Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday of “endangering every American’s health” by the way he’s managed the public health agency.
The former CDC directors and acting directors described Kennedy’s changes to the CDC, including last week’s firing of Susan Monarez as head of the agency, as being “unlike anything we had ever seen at the agency and unlike anything our country had ever experienced,” in a New York Times guest essay.
The former officials, who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, pointed to RFK Jr’s handling of the largest US measles outbreak in decades; his skepticism of vaccine safety; funding cuts to state and local health departments; the terminations of thousands of government healthcare workers; and the replacement of experts on health advisory committees with “unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views,” as threats to Americans.
“Firing Dr. Monarez — which led to the resignations of top CDC. officials — adds considerable fuel to this raging fire,” the ex-CDC leaders wrote.
Monarez was fired last week, after less than a month on the job.
The White House said Monarez was axed because she was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again.”
Her lawyers claim Monarez was “targeted” because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”
“These are not typical requests from a health secretary to a CDC director,” the former officials wrote. “Not even close. None of us would have agreed to the secretary’s demands, and we applaud Dr. Monarez for standing up for the agency and the health of our communities.”
They claim that under RFK Jr., the Department of Health and Human Services “operates under a very different set of rules.”
“[I]t’s clear that the agency is hurting badly,” the essay continued. “The loss of Dr. Monarez and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for the CDC to do what it has done for about 80 years: work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their lives and health.”
The authors of the anti-RFK Jr. op-ed include William Foege, who helmed the CDC under former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, and William Roper, who directed the agency under former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Anne Schuchat, who briefly served as an acting director during President Trump’s first term, also co-signed the piece.
Biden-era CDC chiefs, Rochelle Walensky and Mandy Cohen, were listed as authors as well.
Former Trump CDC directors Brenda Fitzgerald and Robert Redfield did not sign the guest essay.
“[W]e did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection or that they would support public health workers,” the authors wrote.
“We need only look to Operation Warp Speed during the first Trump administration — which produced highly effective and safe vaccines that saved millions of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic — as a shining example of what Health and Human Services can accomplish when health and science are at the forefront of its mission.”
The former CDC leaders called on Congress to “exercise its oversight authority over Health and Human Services” and for state and local governments to “fill funding gaps where they can.”
They argued that CDC employees “deserve a Health and Human Services secretary who stands up for health, supports science and has their back.”
“So, too, does our country.”
HHS did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.
