Nine former directors of the CDC have written an op-ed published in the New York Times where they condemn Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership.

Washington

Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a public warning against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., criticizing his leadership and recent changes to the CDC. In an op-ed, they stated that Kennedy is 'endangering every American's health,' citing the firing of the Trump administration's CDC director and the resignation of four senior CDC officials as evidence of a concerning trend.

The former directors, who served under both Democratic and Republican presidents, expressed alarm over directives they say conflict with scientific evidence and undermine trust in public health institutions. They called for Congressional oversight and action from state governments to ensure the CDC can continue to protect public health, emphasizing the importance of maintaining scientific integrity and access to vaccines.

Former CDC leaders: RFK Jr. is "endangering every American's health"

Well, nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have condemned Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership and his sweeping changes to the CDC. In an op-ed published in The New York Times this Sunday, they wrote that Secretary Kennedy is, quote, endangering every American's health. The group of leaders previously served under Democratic and Republican administrations. Joining us now is one of the co-authors of that op-ed, Dr. Mandy Cohen. She served as the director of the CDC under President Biden. Dr. Cohen, thank you so much for joining us. First and foremost, have you heard from anyone with the Trump administration reacting to this op-ed? And also, why did you decide to join on and sign it? Well, what we are seeing happen right now with the firing of the Trump administration's own hand-selected CDC director, who was confirmed by the Senate. They fired her after only three weeks. And then we saw four of our most senior folks at CDC resign. That is a huge amount of talent walking out the door. And they said they did it because they were getting directives from the secretary and his team that were not in alignment with the science and the data. And that was very concerning. And it is a part of a pattern that we've been seeing of attack against institutions, against science, against experts. And we felt, as CDC directors, it was time for us to issue a warning, because we can right the ship. Things can change. We don't want to see vaccine access go away for folks. We want to see communities be healthy, so we wanted to raise the alarm. Is this a matter of being able to get through to someone who might hold different beliefs? Or is this a case where, as you said, collectively coming together and speaking out, you feel like you'll be able to change something? Because I think some people, too, are questioning, what is the impact that you believe this administration will have on Americans moving forward? Well, I think trust is so important here. And I hear both the president and the secretary talk about trust. But if you want to build trust, you need to be bringing people together. And what I've seen over the last number of weeks and months is actually driving people apart. And so I want to see some additional action here by Congress to do oversight. I think we need to make sure our states are taking action to protect people's health, because I'm concerned with CDC not being able to fulfill its role and actually being dismantled, that we are not going to be able to protect the health security of every community in this country. So Secretary Kennedy, as you know, is set to appear before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday. What are your expectations for lawmakers in terms of their questioning? What are you hoping will come out of that? Yeah, I think they should ask some very hard questions. Some of the folks who resigned last week, who I had the pleasure of working with, have said some pretty important things about not using the expertise, not looking at the data and the evidence to drive decision making. Now we can disagree on policy, but we can't disagree on the science and the data that underlies those decisions. And I hope Congress will ask some hard questions about the importance of vaccines, about their access to people in every community. And I hope they're going to ask about how we're strengthening the CDC and not taking away resources in terms of budget and taking away talent. How are we actually investing to make sure that we are healthy and safe? All right, Dr. Mandy Cohen, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

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Breakdown