Nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sharp warning Monday against Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that his leadership poses a grave threat to public health.
In a guest essay for The New York Times titled “We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health,” the group accused Kennedy of undermining vaccines, halting critical research, and replacing scientific experts with unqualified allies who share his skepticism of established medicine.
The criticism followed President Donald Trump’s recent firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez, who, through her attorneys, said she was removed for refusing to sign “reckless and unscientific” directives.
The former CDC leaders wrote that Kennedy’s actions, including his role in Monarez’s ouster, are “unlike anything our country has ever experienced.” They charged that he canceled investments in promising medical research, cut U.S. support for global vaccination programs, and relied on flawed claims to justify major policy reversals.
The statement was signed by William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky, and Mandy K. Cohen, whose leadership collectively spans more than four decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Monarez’s dismissal capped weeks of internal conflict over a federal vaccine advisory committee, which Kennedy had reshaped by firing members and appointing fellow vaccine skeptics. Her removal sparked mass resignations among CDC leadership and protests outside the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.
“We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security,” the former directors wrote, stressing that prior administrations always relied on data-driven science.
They called on Congress to use its oversight authority, while urging state governments and private foundations to step in and fill funding gaps.
“The men and women of the CDC serve not for prestige or power, but because they believe deeply in public health,” the essay concluded. “They deserve an HHS secretary who supports science and stands behind them. So, too, does our country.”
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