More than 1,000 current and former employees in the US Department of Health and Humanitarian Services have written a letter to Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The message, which was also sent to members of Congress, comes after a loud week in the American centers to combat and prevent it that witnessed its recently confirmed manager, Dr. Susan Monarerez, was shot by the Trump administration, which sparked the resignation of four senior officials of the Public Health Agency. Monares was expelled after refusing to bow to pressure from senior HHS officials to sign possible new vaccine restrictions, according to the people familiar with the matter.
In a speech on Wednesday, employees wrote, including behaviors, including facilitating the launch of Monarerez, the resignation of the leaders of the Disease Control Center for a long time, and the number of what they call “political ideologies”, and they provide to reach “,”, “Minister Kennedy, in exposing the nation’s health at risk.” resolution.”
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HHS did not immediately respond to the CNN request for comment.
Hundreds of current and former HHS employees also wrote to Kennedy last month, after the shooting on August 8 at the headquarters of the Disease Control Center, which killed a police officer, asking the minister to stop “publishing inaccurate health information” and to ensure the safety of the HHS workforce.
In response, a HHS spokesman said in a statement issued by the administration that Kennedy was “standing firmly with the employees of the Disease Control Center” and that “any attempt to mix widespread public health reforms with a suicide group shooter’s violence is an attempt to politicize the tragedy.”
In an opinion article published on Tuesday in the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy claimed that his agency “regains the confidence of the public in the center of control of diseases”, which he said failed during the Covid-19 pandemic because of “political science, bureaucratic self-deficiency and the creeping of the mission.” He pledged to restore the agency to the main focus on infectious diseases, and he claimed to replace experts in the Consultative Committee for Evidence Practices at the Center for Disease Control, a step that shook public health experts, is a step towards eliminating “conflicts of interest and bureaucratic representation.”
The current and former HHS employees who called for his resignation this week, some of whom signed an unknown message for fear of revenge, confirmed that they fell into their personal ability. In the previous letter, employees asked Kennedy by September 2; They said on Wednesday that he did not respond personally.
The employees wrote: “If he refuses to resign, we call on the President and the American Congress to appoint the new Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services, ensuring his qualifications and experiences that the health policy be informed of independent and unbalanced sciences to consider peers.”
Kennedy faced increasing pressure from some in Congress as well as public health groups; Last week, after the prolongation of Monarerez, the American Senator Patti Murray, a democratic of Washington and a large member of the Health, Education and pensions committee in the Senate to shoot.
Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent of Vermont, called for Kennedy’s resignation in an opinion article published on Saturday in the New York Times, noting “the long Crusader campaign against vaccines and his call for conspiracy theories that have been repeatedly rejected by scientific experts.”
Representative Rosa Deloro, a democratic of Connecticut and a member of the Sub -Committee for Parliament’s credits on work, health, humanitarian services, and education, was the latest legislator for Kennedy’s expulsion, in a budget hearing on Tuesday.
“The prominent departures” from the Center for Disease Control “will require supervision by the Assistant Committee.” Then he called for the meeting scheduled for September 18 of the Consultative Committee for Evidence practices at the Center for Disease Control.
“Serious allegations were presented on the agenda of the meeting and membership and the absence of a scientific process,” Cassidy said in a statement. “These decisions directly affect the health of children and the meeting should not occur until a large supervision is made. If the meeting continues, any recommendations submitted that they lack legitimacy in view of the seriousness of the allegations and current disorders in leading the center of control over diseases.”
Separately, Kennedy is scheduled to witness before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday morning in a hearing entitled “The Health Care Agency for the year 2026 for the president.”
Adam Kanrin from CNN and Sarah Aduhli contributed to this report.
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