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Greetings!
The latest news.
The firing of Dr. Susan Monarez, Director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention - just weeks after her Senate confirmation – triggered the resignations of long-time public health experts including the CDC’s Chief Medical Officer, the head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and the head of the National Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. These actions put a bright spotlight on Secretary Kennedy’s dangerous leadership and negligence in managing the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Since the earliest days of his tenure, he has sown chaos, ignored scientific consensus, and further politicized public health through the spreading of disinformation and fringe ideology.
Kennedy must step down or be removed from his position.
In his short time as HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has spearheaded the federal administration’s systematic efforts to dismantle critical public health institutions and undermined evidence-based research and services on which our nation’s health and individual lives depend.
Kennedy's actions have sown confusion, eroded public trust, and threatened the very foundation of our nation's health security. What’s more, these actions will have the most devastating impacts on those already experiencing health inequities.
- Removing pregnant women and children from the CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine schedule, without evidence or process, thereby restricting eligibility as respiratory illness season approaches.
- Canceling $500 million in research into new and life-saving mRNA vaccines, jeopardizing the country’s ability to protect our residents in a pandemic.
- Attempting to claw back $11 billion from state and local public health departments, compromising our nation’s ability to respond to health threats. (This action is being challenged in court.)
- Peddling false treatments during the current measles outbreak. (For example, recommending vitamin A, which resulted in liver damage to some children in Texas.)
- Canceling critical advisory committee meetings and eliminating public input into agency policies.
- Imposing politically motivated scrutiny on evidence-based scientific research. (See, for example, Jessica Steier’s guest essay in the NYT, “The Playbooks Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism.”
Demanding accountability. Protecting local public health.
As readers of these emails know, MPHA has already acted to demand accountability by joining with leading public health and medical professional societies, to take legal action to defend evidence-based vaccine policy and stop Secretary Kennedy’s “arbitrary and capricious” act to unilaterally change COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for children and pregnant people. We believe strongly that when the federal government abandons science and evidence, the courts must step in to protect the public’s health. (We will keep you updated as the federal lawsuit progresses through the court system this fall.)
And today MPHA is joining the American Public Health Association in calling for Secretary Kennedy’s removal from his position. In this most critical role, our communities’ health and safety depend on competent, science-based leadership.
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