The 'charlatan' at HHS is a public health emergency
The rot at the top is metastasizing, crippling the nation’s ability to respond to health threats and fueling dangerous policy at the state level.
By Jeff Nesbit
It’s an act of institutional rebellion rarely, if ever, seen in Washington: More than 1,000 current and former employees of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) signing a letter demanding the resignation of their own leader.
This is not mere political squabbling. The extraordinary letter calling for Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to step down is a desperate alarm bell from the heart of our nation’s public health infrastructure.
It signals a deep and systemic crisis—the dismantling of scientific integrity at the very agency charged with protecting Americans’ health. The dangerous consequences of this crisis are no longer theoretical. They are playing out in real-time, most vividly in Florida, which this week became the first state to scrap all vaccine mandates for children.
The open revolt from within HHS did not happen in a vacuum. It is the culmination of a months-long assault on science and the department’s own experts. As the employees’ letter details, Kennedy has systematically undermined the agencies under his command.
He ousted the newly installed, Senate-confirmed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Susan Monarez, and gutted the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, replacing 17 members with his own acolytes, several of whom are known for promoting vaccine-skeptic views.
In a recent, damning Wall Street Journal op-ed, Monarez revealed that Kennedy demanded she “preapprove the recommendations” of this new panel (a charge Kennedy denied). As she rightly concluded, “That isn’t reform. It is sabotage.”
A recent report from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) echoed this sentiment, describing Kennedy's tenure as defined by “higher costs, chaos and boundless corruption.”
This constant stream of anti-science rhetoric has consequences; HHS employees explicitly linked it to the tragic shooting at CDC headquarters, where a gunman motivated by vaccine grievances killed a police officer.
Kennedy was called to answer for these issues in a very contentious hearing before the Senate Finance Committee Thursday. There, he struggled repeatedly to answer questions about vaccine safety, the mRNA platform at the heart of Operation Warp Speed that began in Trump’s first term, and Kennedy’s support of various conspiracy theories.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) pointedly told the secretary his agenda is “a threat to the public health of the American people.” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) called Kennedy a “charlatan.”
Kennedy claimed not to know how many Americans died of Covid-19 or how many lives were saved from Covid vaccines.
Many senators seemed dumbfounded that the nation’s health secretary was clueless about such a foundational aspect of the American healthcare system. Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said, “You've had this job for eight months and you don't know the data about whether the vaccine saved lives?” Under pressure from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Kennedy said he supports the notion that Trump should be awarded a Nobel prize for mRNA vaccine development during Operation Warp Speed.
Wyoming’s John Barrasso challenged Kennedy on discrepancies between his performance as secretary and what he said under oath in his confirmation hearing.
“You promised to uphold the highest standards for vaccines. Since then, I've grown deeply concerned,” Barrasso, a Republican, said. “The public has seen measles outbreaks, leadership at the National Institute of Health questioning the use of mRNA vaccines, the recently confirmed director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fired. Americans don't know who to rely on.”
The rot at the top is now metastasizing, crippling the nation’s ability to respond to health threats and fueling dangerous policy at the state level.
Look no further than Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis and his surgeon general just announced the elimination of all statewide vaccine requirements for public school students—protections against diseases like polio, measles, and hepatitis B. The state’s surgeon general defended the move with the inflammatory claim that mandates “drip with disdain and slavery.”
This dangerous rhetoric ignores a century of public health success. A CDC report found that since 1994 alone, routine childhood immunizations have saved the lives of over 1.1 million American children and prevented $540 billion in direct healthcare costs.
As Florida abandons science, other states are creating a firewall. The governors of California, Oregon, and Washington have formed a West Coast Health Alliance, announcing they will now rely on guidance from medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, not the CDC.
When states can no longer trust the nation’s premier public health agency, our national defense against disease is fundamentally broken.
The alarm bells are now ringing loudly in the halls of Congress. This week, Democratic senators, some donning white doctors' coats in a symbolic plea for science, gathered outside the Capitol to demand Kennedy’s removal.
“Enough is enough,” declared Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin. “RFK Jr. has got to go.” She was joined by 11 of her Democratic colleagues on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, along with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in a formal call for the secretary to resign.
This political rebuke is bolstered by a growing coalition of medical, scientific, and public health organizations that see the clear and present danger Kennedy’s leadership represents. They understand that his actions are not just unorthodox; they threaten to unravel decades of progress in public health and sow distrust that will take a generation or longer to repair.
The crisis at HHS is far more than a political scandal; it is a direct threat to the health and safety of every American. The internal rebellion at the department, the reckless policies emerging in states like Florida, and the unified condemnation from the scientific community all point to an undeniable conclusion: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s tenure has been a catastrophe.
Science is not a political opinion, and the leadership of HHS is not a platform for conspiracy theories. The health of our children and the integrity of our public health institutions are on the line.
The White House and Congress must act with the urgency this crisis demands and replace Secretary Kennedy with a leader committed to restoring the department's science-driven mission. The process of rebuilding public trust must begin now.
Jeff Nesbit was the assistant secretary of public affairs at Health and Human Services during the Biden administration.
While I'm grateful that my state is joining with California and Washington to make vaccines accessible, a patchwork policy won't protect hypermobile Americans. I don't even travel anymore, but I will be subjected to the disease carriers who move in and out of Oregon, threatening my health and my life.
I have spent 5 years diligently avoiding contracting covid--and 63 years avoiding measles, polio, whooping cough, mumps, tetanus, and whatever else I have been inoculated against--only to be thrown into a pool of diseased Americans and our visitors. Oh, yes. It's not a slur. Anyone who has ever played tag on the playground knows how contagion works.
I'm furious at the utter stupidity and disregard from my fellow Americans. My father survived polio and went on to become a physician. Thank god he's dead and won't witness this destruction.
Thank you for this very informative article. As always.
But... I'm left sputtering.
Absolutely pathetic demonstration of Democratic leadership.
Without in any way diminishing the fight shown by Senator Baldwin and 12 other Senate colleagues who called for Kennedy's resignation - why oh why wasn't Senator Baldwin joined by ALL Senate Democrats? Should have been a unanimous show of force.