More than 15,000 doctors have signed a letter urging senators vote against the confirmation of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“The health and well-being of 336 million Americans depends on HHS leadership in prioritizing science, evidence-based medicine, and strengthening the integrity of our public health system,” it said. the letter. “RFK Jr. is not only incompetent to lead this critical agency, he is actively dangerous.”
The letter was put online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physician advocacy group. Beyond his well-documented anti-vaccine views and advocacy, the letter cites other conspiracy theories that Kennedy actively propagated, including baseless claims about a link between school shootings and antidepressants and his promotion of disproven treatments for Covid-19.
“This nomination is a slap in the face to all healthcare professionals who have spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death,” the letter said.
Kennedy met with Republican and Democratic senators at the Capitol ahead of his confirmation hearing, the date of which has not yet been set. Kennedy would need all but three Republican votes if all Senate Democrats voted against his confirmation.
Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment on the letter. Asked by text message about the wave of opposition from doctors and public health organizations to Trump’s intention to nominate Kennedy, Katie Miller, Kennedy’s spokeswoman on the Trump transition team, dismissed the backlash. as “just another scam” that would “rip off donors” to advocacy groups. .
“Robert F Kennedy Jr will be confirmed and those who spend their time undermining him will have no place or voice at HHS,” Miller said via text message. “Good luck and best wishes to them.”
The letter and a corresponding campaign Urging medical professionals to contact their senators and the American Medical Association are just the latest responses from doctors and public health advocates to Kennedy’s controversial selection.
The liberal nonprofit group Protect Our Care, which advocates for upholding 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 that killed 83 people, most of them children. This week, Hawaii Governor Josh Green, a physician, wrote in the New York Times that vaccine misinformation spread by Kennedy played a role in the outbreak in Samoa and warned that his appointment to the Department of Health and Human Services would endanger public health.
In November press releases, healthcare consumer advocacy group Community Catalyst called Kennedy “a totally incompetent and dangerous choice,” and the progressive non-profit consumer rights group A public citizen said Kennedy “would endanger people’s lives if placed in a position of authority over health matters.”
Green appeared Wednesday alongside members of Congress from public health backgrounds at a press conference opposing Kennedy hosted by 314 Action, a progressive political action committee dedicated to electing scientists.
Kennedy’s allies and a dedicated PAC, American Values 2024, portrayed opposition to his selection as having been orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies to silence him and hinder his efforts to make America healthy.
The Health Care Protection Committee, which is not funded by the pharmaceutical industry or for-profit health care companies, has actively opposed efforts by drug companies at the state level to implement places advice on accessibility of prescription drugs.
“We’re certainly not friends with Pharma, and they’re not friends with us,” said the committee’s executive director, Dr. Rob Davidson, a Michigan emergency physician.
Davidson said he and the thousands of other signatories to the letter were motivated by patients.
“Kennedy presents a clear and present danger,” he said.