Just eight months into her treatment for a rare form of blood cancer, Tatiana Schlossberg, the granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy and daughter of Caroline Kennedy, says the health care system on which she had come to rely on felt "strained, shaky."

The reason for her concern was the confirmation of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary in February. In an essay in the New Yorker on Nov. 12, in which she revealed that she had less than a year to live, Schlossberg minced no words about the damage she believes Kennedy’s actions have and will inflict on cancer patients and on medical research.

"As I spent more and more of my life under the care of doctors, nurses, and researchers striving to improve the lives of others, I watched as Bobby cut nearly a half billion dollars for research into mRNA vaccines, technology that could be used against certain cancers," she wrote. "Slashed billions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest sponsor of medical research."

She wrote that doctors and scientists at Columbia University – where her husband worked as a urology resident and where (Columbia Presbyterian hospital) she was being initially treated – didn’t know if they would be able to continue their research, or even have jobs.

"In May, the university laid off a hundred and eighty researchers after federal-funding cuts," she wrote.

Schlossberg was diagnosed with "acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3" at age 34, just hours after the she had delivered her second child, a daughter. Her two-year-old son had just visited the hospital with her parents.

Kennedy, the son of late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy, is a long-time vaccine skeptic, who has been making sweeping changes to reshape vaccines, food and medicine policies. The HHS did not respond to USA TODAY seeking a comment from Kennedy on the essay.

In March, Kennedy announced a major restructuring plan including the consolidation of divisions and elimination of 20,000 full-time employees, saying it would save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year. Kennedy has also slashed the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services in 2026 to $94.7 billion, compared to $127.6 billion in 2025.

Kennedy, who has repeatedly claimed that he is cutting bureaucracy, not research, has also said that some grants, which were frozen in error, would be reinstated.

As of Nov. 21, HHS has restored about 52%, or 2,860, of the terminated NIH grants, according to Grant Witness, which tracks the progress. But more than 2,600 grants continue to be impacted.

In August, Kennedy called the mRNA vaccine technology "ineffective" and claimed it posed more risks than benefits.

He said the decision would impact 22 projects worth nearly $500 million at the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which helps companies develop vaccines, drugs and diagnostics for public health emergencies.

Kennedy ran for president as a Democrat in 2024, before switching to independent and eventually endorsing the-candidate Donald Trump. When he joined the Trump camp, he brought with him his newly minted "Make America Healthy Again" movement, and Trump promised to let Kennedy "go wild" on health, food and medicine.

Schlossberg, who has had two born-marrow transplants at New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering, said she worried about how Kennedy’s policies would mar research and clinical trials at the hospital.

"I worried about funding for leukemia and bone-marrow research at Memorial Sloan Kettering. I worried about the trials that were my only shot at remission," wrote Schlossberg.

In January, Schlossberg joined a clinical trial for "CAR T-cell therapy," a type of immunotherapy against certain blood cancers.

"During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe. My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me," she wrote in a heartbreaking essay.

In June, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's expert vaccine panel and filled many of the positions with people who have been vaccine skeptics or questioned COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Two months later, Kennedy ousted Susan Monarez, the head of CDC, just 29 days after she had been confirmed by the Senate. Monarez said she was let go because she refused to "preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric."

Early in her illness, Schlossberg said when she had the postpartum hemorrhage, she was given a dose of misoprostol to help stop the bleeding.

"This drug is part of medication abortion, which, at Bobby’s urging, is currently 'under review' by the Food and Drug Administration," she wrote. "I freeze when I think about what would have happened if it had not been immediately available to me and to millions of other women who need it to save their lives or to get the care they deserve."

Kennedy directed the FDA in May to conduct a safety review of mifepristone, the primary drug used in medication abortions. Misoprostol is the second drug in the two-pill regimen.

Schlossberg is not the first member of the Kennedy family to speak out against RFK Jr. Most of his siblings and cousins endorsed former President Joe Biden in his election campaign, and denounced his eventual support of Trump.

"My mother wrote a letter to the Senate, to try and stop his confirmation; my brother had been speaking out against his lies for months," wrote Schlossberg. "I watched from my hospital bed as Bobby, in the face of logic and common sense, was confirmed for the position, despite never having worked in medicine, public health, or the government."

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: JFK's granddaughter criticizes RFK Jr.; says she has terminal cancer

Reporting by Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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