A group of nine former directors and interim directors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Monday in an essay for The New York Times (NYT) about the “danger” of having Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the US.
Kennedy’s actions as the country’s leading health official “are not precedent in our country,” they detailed in the article entitled ‘We directed the CDC: Kennedy is endangering the health of all Americans’.
The text, available only in the NYT web version, is published after President Donald Trump dismissed the director of the CDC, Susan Monarch, and that it alleged that it is a dismissal “without scientific foundation”; based on the fact that he opposed “reckless orders” about vaccines.
The essay was signed by personalities who worked under Democratic and also republican administrations, and are: William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen.
In an article signed by former director of the CDC -key institution for disease monitoring and scientific research in the US.
“He canceled investments in promising medical investigations that will leave us poorly prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts in federal health advisors for unqualified persons who share their dangerous and little scientific opinions,” he lists the article.
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In addition, he adds that he announced the end of US support to global vaccination programs, which “protect millions of children and keep Americans safe,” citing alleged poor investigations and making inaccurate statements.
“We are concerned about the broad impact that all these decisions will have on the health security of the United States,” wrote the former CDC directors.
The signatories, who also urged Congress to exercise supervision on the Department of Health, said that, although in the past they disagreed on several occasions with their leaders, they had never before had reasons to doubt that their decisions were based on solid and verified investigations.
Both before and after assuming the position, Kennedy Jr. has made public statements in which he has been skeptical regarding vaccines and openly opposite to abortion, as well as the controlled fluoration of drinking water, a measure implemented to prevent dental caries.
In turn, Kennedy Jr. has announced that in September his department will publish an investigation that will establish certain “interventions” or factors such as definitive causes of autism. Most experts continue to question any connection between vaccines and autism.
With EFE information.
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