More than 15,000 doctors have signed an open letter asking the Senate to vote against the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy (nicknamed RFK Jr.) as future Secretary of Health under the administration of Republican Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20. .
“The health and well-being of 336 million Americans depends on the Secretary of Health’s leadership prioritizing science and evidence-based medicine and strengthening the integrity of our public health system,” the letter says. “RFK Jr. is not only unqualified to lead this essential agency, he is actively dangerous,” he added.
The letter was posted online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a medical advocacy group. Beyond RFJ Jr.’s well-documented anti-vaccine stances, the letter cites other conspiracy theories that Kennedy has actively propagated, including baseless claims about links between school shootings and antidepressant drugs, or their push. to disproven coronavirus treatments.
“This appointment is like a slap in the face to all health care professionals who have dedicated their lives to protecting patients from preventable death and illness,” he says.
Kennedy Jr. has been meeting with Republican and Democratic senators on Capitol Hill ahead of his confirmation hearing for the position, which has not yet been scheduled.
There are 47 Democratic senators and 53 Republicans in the new legislature. To be confirmed, Kennedy Jr. would need at least 50 Republican votes if all Democrats vote against him.
Kennedy Jr. did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. Asked by cell phone message about the wave of opposition from doctors and public health groups against the nomination, Katie Miller, Kennedy Jr.’s spokeswoman on the Trump transition team, downplayed the criticism as “another scam” to “deceive.” donors in favor of activist groups.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going to be confirmed, and all those who are dedicating their time to undermining him will not have a say in the next” Secretary of Health,” he stressed.
The letter published Thursday and the parallel campaign urging health professionals to contact their senators and the American Medical Association are just the latest response from doctors and activists to Kennedy Jr.’s controversial nomination.
The liberal nonprofit group Protect Our Care, which advocates preserving the Affordable Care Act, also launched a campaign this week with a report and digital ads highlighting Kennedy’s trip to Samoa in 2019 before a measles outbreak which killed 83 people, most of them children.
This week, Hawaii Gov. Dr. Josh Green wrote in The New York Times that vaccine misinformation spread by Kennedy played a role in the Samoa outbreak and warned that appointing him to the Department of Health would jeopardize public health. public.
A group of Nobel laureates have also said that Kennedy Jr. should not be left in office, for example. And the nonprofit Protect Our Care launched a campaign with televised spots mentioning Kennedy’s trip to American Samoa in 2019.
In November, the health care consumer advocacy group Community Catalyst called Kennedy “totally unqualified and a dangerous choice”; and the progressive nonprofit consumer rights group Public Citizen said Kennedy “would endanger people’s lives if placed in a position of authority over health care.”
Green appeared alongside members of Congress with public health expertise Wednesday at a news conference opposing Kennedy organized by 314 Action, a progressive political action committee dedicated to electing scientists.
Kennedy’s allies have framed opposition to his selection as orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies to silence him and impede his efforts to make America healthy.
The Committee to Protect Health Care, which is not funded by the pharmaceutical industry or for-profit health corporations, has been active in opposing drug companies in state-level efforts to install health care affordability boards. prescription medications.
“We are definitely not friends of the drug companies, and they are not friends of ours,” said the committee’s executive director, Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room doctor in Michigan.
Davidson said he and the thousands of other signers of the letter were motivated by patients. “Kennedy represents a clear and present danger,” he said.
