Six former surgeons general unite for rare warning over RFK Jr’s actions: ‘endangering the health of the nation’
Six former U.S. surgeons general have publicly condemned Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, calling his leadership a “profound, immediate, and unprecedented threat” to the health and safety of Americans.
The letter, published in The Washington Post, was written by Jerome Adams, Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello, and David Satcher—who have all served as surgeon general and have collectively served under every Republican and Democratic president since George H. W. Bush.
The surgeons general warned that Kennedy is “endangering the health of the nation.”
Such a letter from bipartisan surgeons general essentially calling for the removal of a DHHS director is unprecedented.
“Over recent months, we have watched with increasing alarm as the foundations of our nation’s public health system have been undermined,” the letter states. “Science and expertise have taken a back seat to ideology and misinformation. Morale has plummeted in our health agencies, and talent is fleeing at a time when we face rising threats — from resurgent infectious diseases to worsening chronic illnesses.”
The letter calls for a leader who “respects scientific integrity and transparency, listens to experts, and can restore trust to the federal health apparatus.”
“Instead, Kennedy has become a driving force behind that crisis.”
The letter comes on the heels of President Donald Trump and Kennedy’s joint, highly contested announcement, that pregnant women using Tylenol is a driving cause of autism in children.
Before that, Kennedy—a long-time vaccine skeptic and leading voice of suspicion when the Covid-19 vaccines became available—made clear he wanted to rework the nation’s vaccine policy.
“Kennedy has spent decades advancing dangerous and discredited claims about vaccines—most notoriously, the thoroughly discredited theory that childhood vaccines cause autism,” the letter says. “He has promoted misinformation about the HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, and he has repeatedly misrepresented the risks of mRNA technology and coronavirus vaccines, despite their lifesaving impact during the pandemic.”
In June, Kennedy authorized the firing of the 17-member Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and in September he fired former CDC Director Susan Monarez.
Monarez claims she was fired after she refused to rubber-stamp Kennedy’s vaccine policies without first checking them against existing scientific evidence.
The surgeons general said that Kennedy’s replacements for the fired federal workers lack “basic qualifications” and that some are even “vaccine conspiracy theorists.”
“The new committee has already begun casting doubt on the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, despite decades of data affirming its effectiveness and strong safety profile,” the letter says.
