The U.S. Centers for Disease Control tracks public health threats domestically and abroad while operating under the Health and Human Services Department. With the lives of more than 343 million Americans in the hands of public health institutions like the CDC, HHS leadership ought to be experienced with a background in medicine.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, offers no such experience or knowledge, holding a bachelor’s degree in American history and literature at Harvard and a law degree at the University of Virginia.
He does have some experience serving the public through his environmental advocacy, holding government agencies responsible for the pollution at the Hudson River. Despite his long career, he holds unfounded skepticism about vaccines and engages in inconsistent staffing practices for the department.
Anti-vaccination sentiment is the more glaring way Kennedy hinders the effectiveness of the HHS department. A 2005 op-ed in Rolling Stone revealed his belief that thimerosal, an ingredient in vaccines, is linked to increasing rates of autism.
His vaccine skepticism remains after 21 years despite overwhelming evidence contrary to his beliefs about vaccines causing autism, even going as far as to stop recommending Hepatitis B vaccines to newborn babies.
Kennedy’s knowledge of vaccines and general health principles is so poor that the American College of Physicians is asking for his removal.
“Secretary Kennedy’s actions have undermined and destabilized our public health infrastructure, shown a blatant disregard for decades of evidence-based, proven science, and have spread dangerous medical misinformation, sowing chaos and confusion and putting lives at risk,” the 162,000 physicians who are represented in the organization said in a statement. “We have lost confidence in his leadership and call for him to be removed and replaced with a qualified health expert with appropriate and relevant knowledge and experience.”
It’s clear that ignorance begets more ignorance since Kennedy has no qualifications to be in any position of authority in the public health sector, and neither do his hand-selected vaccine panel “experts.” Robert Malone, one of the eight people on the vaccine panel of advisors, is against mRNA vaccines and supports Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again agenda. The MAHA agenda includes reducing childhood obesity, prediabetes, cancer, autism and depression.
Despite Kennedy’s consistent opposing viewpoints with the medical community, he has done some backtracking. As of summer 2025, hundreds of HHS staff have been rehired; over 700 workers at the CDC and more than 200 at the National Institute of Health have their jobs again. Kennedy admitted to lawmakers that the restructuring of the department was flawed, stating that “in some cases, there have been gaps in our ability to perform our duties, they were doing important work that was critical.”
Truthful reflection about what went wrong is difficult for even the best leaders. However, public health directly impacts the lives of millions. Poor insight on inoculation policies to the point of rejecting or postponing life-saving medications, misguided hiring and termination practices and insufficient educational attainments can cause public health to sink and drown citizens with it.
If Kennedy is truly serious about serving the public, he must swallow his ego and step down as the secretary of health and human services to maintain vital institutions and keep everyone safe and healthy.
