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More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary
Their letter calls the choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for promoting false medical claims, “a slap in the face” to health care professionals.
More than 15,000 doctors sign letter urging Senate to reject RFK Jr. as health secretary
Their letter calls the choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is known for promoting false medical claims, “a slap in the face” to health care professionals.
www.nbcnews.com
More than 15,000 doctors have signed a letter urging senators to vote against confirming 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 depend on leadership at HHS that prioritizes science, evidence-based medicine, and strengthening the integrity of our public health system,” the letter reads. “RFK Jr. is not only unqualified to lead this essential agency — he is actively dangerous.”
The letter was posted online by the Committee to Protect Health Care, a physicians advocacy group. Beyond his well-documented anti-vaccine views and advocacy, the letter cites other conspiracy theories Kennedy has actively spread, including baseless claims about a link between school shootings and antidepressants and his promotion of disproven treatments for Covid-19.
“This appointment is a slap in the face to every health care professional who has spent their lives working to protect patients from preventable illness and death,” the letter says.
Kennedy has been meeting with Republican and Democratic senators on Capitol Hill in anticipation of his confirmation hearing, the date for which has not yet been set. Kennedy would need all but three Republican votes if all the Senate’s Democrats vote against his confirmation.
Kennedy did not return a request for comment on the letter. Asked by text about the swell of opposition from doctors and public health organizations to Trump’s intention to nominate Kennedy, Katie Miller, Kennedy’s spokesperson within the Trump transition team, dismissed the backlash as “just another grift” that would “bilk donors” to advocacy groups.
“Robert F Kennedy Jr will be confirmed and those who are spending their time undermining him will have no place and no voice at HHS,” Miller said by text. “Good luck and best wishes to them.”
The letter and a corresponding campaign urging health care professionals to contact their senators and the American Medical Association are just the latest responses from physicians and public health advocates to Kennedy’s controversial selection.
The liberal nonprofit group Protect Our Care, which advocates to preserve the Affordable Care Act, also launched a campaign this week with a report and digital ads highlighting Kennedy’s 2019 trip to Samoa before a measles outbreak that killed 83 people, most of them children. This week, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a physician, wrote in The New York Times that vaccine misinformation spread by Kennedy played a role in Samoa’s outbreak and warned that appointing him at the Department of Health and Human Services would jeopardize public health.