Hundreds of federal health workers have signed a blistering letter to United States Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, urging him to “stop spreading inaccurate health information.”
The rare rebuke comes just weeks after a gunman fired hundreds of rounds into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, killing a police officer before taking his own life.
The letter, signed by hundreds of current HHS staff, accuses Kennedy of undermining trust in public health agencies by repeatedly attacking the CDC’s integrity. During his failed 2024 presidential run, Kennedy publicly called the CDC a “cesspool of corruption” – rhetoric his critics say has fueled violence and mistrust.
Workers said Kennedy’s budget cuts and layoffs, including thousands of HHS staff, are leaving “dangerous gaps in areas like infectious disease detection, worker safety, and chronic disease prevention.”
The August 8 shooting at CDC headquarters was carried out by a man who openly rejected COVID-19 vaccines. He killed police officer David Rose, 33, before dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Employees say the attack is another direct consequence of Kennedy’s words, which embolden extremists who view public health workers as enemies
Kennedy has a decades-long record of promoting vaccine skepticism. In 2019, he visited Samoa just months before a measles outbreak killed 81 people, mostly infants. The country’s prime minister later questioned why such a figure had been appointed US health secretary.
More recently, Kennedy canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for mRNA vaccine research – despite evidence that the technology has saved millions of lives during the pandemic and shows promise for treating cancer and HIV.
Meanwhile, the HHS has insisted that Kennedy “stands firmly with CDC employees” and is prioritizing their safety – a message many inside the agency say contradicts the reality of his policies.
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