On Labor Day morning, nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control joined forces to call out Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for putting the health and safety of Americans at risk with almost every action he has taken since he was sworn in.

In a harsh editorial published by the New York Times titled, “ We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health,” William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen wrote that Kennedy’s conduct which has included mass firings of government experts in their fields is “unacceptable.”

Getting right to the point, they wrote, “What Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has done to the C.D.C. and to our nation’s public health system over the past several months — culminating in his decision to fire Dr. Susan Monarez as C.D.C. director days ago — is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced.”


To make their case, they pointed out that the controversial health secretary has done damage to “programs designed to protect Americans from cancer, heart attacks, strokes, lead poisoning, injury, violence and more,” while adding that he has been pushing unproven treatments to battle a measles outbreak spreading across the country.


Calling his actions in some cases, and inaction in others, “unacceptable,” they added, “it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings.”“During our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers,” they admitted before singling out the Trump-appointee’s treatment of the CDC’s Monarez, and writing they would have responded to Kennedy's outrageous demands in the same way that led to her dismissal.

Thanking current longtime CDC employees who are still hanging in and fighting the good fight, they added, “it’s clear that the agency is hurting badly. The loss of Dr. Monarez and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for C.D.C. to do what it has done for about 80 years, to work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their lives and health.”


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