“Resign or be fired” – APHA executive director calls out RFK Jr

3 months ago 30

Ross Law

Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 4:19 AM 3 min read

American Public Health Association (APHA) enforcement manager Dr Georges C. Benjamin has called for Robert F Kennedy, Jr (RFK Jr) to "resign oregon beryllium fired" from his presumption arsenic caput astatine the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In the fewer weeks that RFK Jr has been astatine the helm of the HHS wrong the Trump administration, the archetypal concerns APHA held implicit his assignment "have been realised", Dr Benjamin wrote successful a statement.

He adds: “The caller implementation of monolithic reductions successful unit astatine cardinal wellness agencies including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), among others, on with acknowledgement since that galore of these radical shouldn’t person been fired, is the latest illustration of mediocre and thoughtless absorption that volition lone undermine the enactment of our nation’s apical nationalist wellness agencies to support america each healthy.”

Dr Benjamin’s allusion to RFK Jr’s evident ignorance implicit the imaginable interaction that occupation cuts crossed the wellness agencies nested nether the HHS refers to remarks the HHS caput made successful a televised interrogation with CBS News connected 9 April.

When asked astir past week’s occupation cuts, which are acceptable to slim the workforce astatine the combined HHS agencies from 82,000 to astir 62,000, Kennedy said: “What Elon [Musk] said is that, erstwhile you bash a disruption of this, a batch of times, 80% of the radical that get chopped ... You whitethorn marque mistakes, arsenic overmuch arsenic 20[%], and past you spell backmost and remedy that."

Dr Benjamin besides pointed retired that during his information hearing, RFK Jr was presented with aggregate studies and responded with a tiny and unsupported survey that reinforced his presumption arsenic a vaccine sceptic, contempt promising that if helium were shown the information regarding the information and efficacy of vaccines, helium would beryllium “the archetypal idiosyncratic to reassure the American radical that they request to instrumentality those vaccines”.

The remainder of Dr Benjamin’s connection highlighted aggregate different instances successful which RFK Jr had amply demonstrated his ‘explicit bias’ and ‘complete disregard for science’.

Actions that telephone into uncertainty RFK Jr’s suitability for the role, arsenic highlighted by Benjamin, included the wellness secretary’s initially cavalier cognition to the ongoing measles outbreak successful West Texas, and his proposition that vitamin A whitethorn beryllium a suitable alternate attraction to measles than a vaccine.

The APHA’s enforcement manager besides highlighted that nether RFK Jr, the US’s capableness to respond to nationalist wellness threats, including the existent measles epidemic, had been stymied owed to ‘precipitously cutting funding’ from authorities and section nationalist wellness by clawing backmost $11bn (approximately $34 per idiosyncratic successful the US) successful approved funding.