Nine former CDC directors spanning administrations from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump said Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s actions endanger Americans' health. They criticized the abrupt firing of CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez and described Kennedy's policymaking and agency reorganization as unprecedented. The officials accused Kennedy of promoting harmful views and individuals, replacing experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified people, and downplaying vaccines while focusing on unproven treatments during a major measles outbreak. They noted Kennedy announced an end to U.S. support for global vaccination programs, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. They said Monarez was removed after refusing to rubber-stamp his recommendations.
Their alarm follows the abrupt firing of CDC director Dr. Susan Monarez. Kennedy's policy making and reorganization of the department, they said, is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced. In attack after attack on the moves made by Kennedy the accuse him of pushing harmful views and individuals, warning the impact will be felt by the American people.
Amid the largest measles outbreak in the United States in a generation, he's focused on unproven treatments' while downplaying vaccines, the former officials wrote. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. They continue: He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements. The authors then rounded on Kennedy's firing of Dr. Monarez, protesting that just weeks earlier, he had commended her as having unimpeachable scientific credentials.
When Secretary Kennedy administered the oath of office to Dr. Monarez on July 31, he called her a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials,' the officials wrote. But when she refused weeks later to rubber-stamp his dangerous and unfounded vaccine recommendations or heed his demand to fire senior C.D.C. staff members, he decided she was expendable.
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