Experts call on US Health Secretary RFK Jr to resign over misinformation

More than 20 health groups and medical associations have called on Robert F Kennedy Jr to step down as the United States’ health secretary, accusing him of putting lives at risk by disregarding decades of lifesaving science and reversing medical progress.

In a joint statement published on Wednesday, the groups – including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Public Health Association, and the American Association of Immunologists – said Kennedy is forcing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts to “turn their back on decades of sound science” to further his agenda.

The groups also accused Kennedy of “repeated efforts to undermine science and public health”, leaving Americans “less safe in a multitude of ways”.

“Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe,” the statement said.

“We are gravely concerned that American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of policies that turn away from sound interventions,” it added.

The letter comes after multiple former CDC directors said last week that Kennedy’s decisions are putting Americans’ health at risk, after he fired the agency’s director, Susan Monarez, less than a month after she was sworn in.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said Monarez was not “aligned with” President Donald Trump’s agenda and refused to resign, so the White House terminated her.

Monarez’s lawyers said she had been targeted as she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts”.

Her departure coincided with the resignations of at least four other top CDC officials in response to Kennedy’s influence over the agency.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Kennedy said his mission was “to restore the CDC’s focus on infectious disease” and “rebuild trust through transparency and competence”.

Kennedy – who has long been accused of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation – has made sweeping changes to US vaccine policies since being appointed by Trump, causing friction with health officials.

In May, he withdrew federal recommendations for COVID shots for pregnant women and healthy children. In June, he also fired all members of the CDC’s expert vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with hand-picked advisers, including fellow anti-vaccine activists.

In August, he then cancelled nearly $500m in funding for mRNA vaccine research in a move health experts said could make the US much more vulnerable to future outbreaks of respiratory viruses.

Kennedy said the US will shift mRNA funding to other vaccine development technologies that are “safer” and “remain effective”.

The International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health credits mRNA vaccines with preventing millions of deaths from COVID-19, saying the innovative technology has the potential to treat diseases such as cancer and HIV.

Most recently, on August 20, hundreds of federal health employees wrote to Kennedy imploring him to “stop spreading inaccurate health information” and for him to either resign or be fired.

Signatories accused Kennedy of “sowing public mistrust by questioning the integrity and morality” of the CDC’s workforce, including by calling the public health agency a “cesspool of corruption”.