Relations of Well being and Human Companies Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have joined these demanding he resign, calling him a menace to public well being due to his makes an attempt to undercut confirmed vaccine science.
His nephew Joseph Kennedy III and sister Kerry Kennedy every ripped into their relative on Friday — after RFK Jr. tried to defend scaling again the division’s COVID-19 vaccine protection suggestions in an emotionally charged, three-hour congressional committee listening to. He additionally needed to reply for the turmoil roiling the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention as Director Susan Monarez was ousted simply weeks after taking the job, sparking 4 different high-profile resignations. They and former departing officers cited the anti-vaxxer’s stance on the confirmed preventative.
Final week 1,000 former HHS staff signed a petition saying he ought to resign, becoming a member of a number of members of Congress and a bunch of medical specialists.
“Robert Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and well-being of every American,” Joe Kennedy wrote on X the day after the listening to. As a purveyor of misinformation and sower of confusion, RFK is just not adequately “protecting the public health of our country and its people,” the secretary’s nephew stated. “At yesterday’s hearing, he chose to do the opposite: to dismiss science, mislead the public, sideline experts and sow confusion.”
The important values of “moral clarity, scientific expertise, and leadership rooted in fact” required of anybody taking up present challenges to public well being within the U.S. are merely “not present in the Secretary’s office,” Joe Kennedy stated. “He must resign.”
Kerry Kennedy reposted that stance on her X account — and added a scathing assertion of her personal, mentioning that vaccines have been in use since 1796 and have saved thousands and thousands of lives.
“Vaccines work. This is not up for debate,” Kerry Kennedy wrote. “Medical decisions belong in the hands of trained and licensed professionals, not incompetent and misguided leadership. The decimation of critical institutions, like the NIH and the CDC, will lead to the loss of innocent lives. This means that children, mothers, fathers, and those you love are at risk now, like never before.”
Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. for a the Senate Finance Committee listening to on the Dirksen Senate Workplace Constructing on September 4. (Photograph by Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures)
Since being confirmed in February — after a promise to not change federal vaccine coverage — RFK Jr. has since wrongly claimed the science supporting vaccines, particularly for COVID, is “unproven,” fired the 17-member panel that advises the CDC on immunization technique, changing them with vaccine critics, and slashed at the very least 10,000 jobs at HHS and CDC.
“None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting,” Joe Kennedy wrote. “It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are or what state you live in – the heartbreak of watching a loved one fall ill knows no borders.”
Initially Printed: September 7, 2025 at 8:22 PM EDT
