HHS secretary RFK Jr. and the American Academy of Pediatrics are at a odds above COVID-19 vaccines.

If you do nothing else today, please light up the phone lines of your congressional representatives and demand the immediate impeachment of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The dangerous actions of this longtime conspiracy nut are often overshadowed by the daily chaos and craziness of the Trump administration, but the things he’s doing are, quite simply, putting every American’s health at risk. Simply put, people are going to die.

Kennedy’s anti-science, anti-vaccine, pro-stupidity approach to health has now decapitated the top leadership at the vitally important U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prompting a massive staff walkout at the agency. On Aug. 27, the White House said it had fired CDC director Susan Monarez, who Trump himself nominated and the Senate confirmed only a month ago.

That alleged firing, which Monarez is contesting, prompted three other top CDC leaders to resign: chief medical officer Deb Houry; Demetre Daskalakis, the center’s top respiratory illness and immunization official; and National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Director Daniel Jernigan.

RFK Jr.'s polices are 'designed to hurt,' not help public health

In his resignation letter, Daskalakis wrote: “I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

He told the Washington Post it has been “death by a thousand cuts” for U.S. public health under Kennedy’s leadership.

In a note to the CDC staff, Houry wrote: “Vaccines save lives — this is an indisputable, well-established, scientific fact. ... Recently, the overstating of risks and the rise of misinformation have cost lives, as demonstrated by the highest number of U.S. measles cases in 30 years and the violent attack on our agency.”

CDC director says removal was for unwillingness to follow reckless orders

Attorneys for Monarez say Kennedy is trying to remove her because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.”

On Aug. 28, a sprawling crowd of CDC staff members walked out of the Atlanta headquarters to protest the leadership purge and cheer the departing experts.

It’s almost as if appointing an anti-vax kook with zero qualifications to oversee America’s health was a numbskull idea, and everybody with a functioning brain knew it. Now, I’d argue, it’s time to listen to the dedicated public servants who have the guts to speak out.

Kennedy is already laying waste to America's vaccine policies

Kennedy – who again has no medical background and has spent much of his life peddling unsubstantiated anti-vaccine lies – has already gone to great lengths to undercut vaccines and create confusion about their efficacy. (Vaccines are safe and save lives. Any suggestion to the contrary is abject nonsense.)

Thanks to Kennedy, the CDC no longer recommends pregnant women and healthy children get COVID-19 shots, which flies in the face of sound medical advice. He just issued new restrictions on COVID vaccines that will likely make it harder for Americans to get the shot and have it covered by their health insurance. He canned expert members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel and replaced them with fellow travelers in the vaccine-skeptical or straight-up anti-vaccine world.

He criticized the fact that vaccines are listed on the CDC’s website as one of top 10 medical accomplishments. That’s quite literally insane. Vaccines are one of the greatest medical accomplishments in human history and have saved a staggering number of lives.

Anti-fluoride, spouting nonsense about 'mitochondrial challenges'

Kennedy is pushing for the removal of fluoride from drinking water, potentially undoing 80 years of disease prevention because his addled brain doesn’t trust proven science and accepts whatever fringe claptrap aligns with his dippy beliefs.

On Aug. 27, Kennedy emitted this babble: “I’m looking at kids as I walk through the airports today, as I walk down the street, and I see these kids that are just overburdened with mitochondrial challenges, with inflammation. You can tell from their faces, from their body movements, and from their lack of social connection. And I know that’s not how our children are supposed to look. And I know what a healthy child is supposed to look like.”

What the hell is he talking about? A raw-milk-guzzling conspiracy theorist with zero medical training and a penchant for road kill can diagnose children in passing? Give me a break.

Americans should demand the swift impeachment of RFK Jr.

This guy is barking mad, and he’s gutting the health institutions Americans rely on to stay healthy and safe. He’s demonizing and firing lifelong experts in their fields and forging policy based on poppycock, all while confusing the public and amping up distrust of the scientific community.

If there’s faulty wiring, I call an electrician. I don’t call a random guy at the bar who says mainstream electricians don’t understand the right way to naturally heal a loose connection.

The state of American health and health care under Kennedy is presently a five-alarm fire. Whatever your politics, get on the phone and urge your lawmakers to get off their tails and boot this nutter out of the powerful seat he so clearly has no business occupying.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr. is an anti-vaccine kook destroying the CDC. Impeach him. | Opinion

Reporting by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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