Six former U.S. Surgeons General issued a joint warning saying Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s actions “are endangering the health of the nation.”
Calling Kennedy’s stewardship a “profound, immediate and unprecedented threat,” the rare, unified blast—delivered in a Washington Post opinion piece—urged replacing him with a leader “committed to scientific integrity.”
The surgeon general is the operational head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the federal government’s lead public-health voice, housed inside the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health. The post is presidentially nominated and Senate-confirmed, and traditionally elevates science and evidence over politics.
In an extraordinary broadside, even Trump-appointed Jerome Adams joined Richard Carmona, Joycelyn Elders, Vivek Murthy, Antonia Novello, and David Satcher in damning Kennedy.
They said he has “rejected science, misled the public and compromised the health of Americans.”
They accused him of sidelining experts, gutting scientific panels, and fueling misinformation that has “eroded public trust” across HHS agencies, including the CDC, FDA, and NIH.
“Instead of combating the rapid spread of health misinformation with facts and clarity, Kennedy is amplifying it,” they wrote.
The article cites numerous red flags. They say the anti-vaxxer’s overhaul of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel—after he removed all 17 sitting members—installed figures “who often lacked basic qualifications,” undercutting long-standing recommendations.
He announced the mass removal in June. On Oct. 6, the CDC adopted changes, including shifting adult COVID vaccination to “shared clinical decision-making” and steering toddler shots away from the combined MMRV dose.
The surgeons also hammer Kennedy over vaccine distortions, “most notoriously” around already-discredited links to autism.
The HHS push last month to slap autism-linked warning labels on acetaminophen products used in pregnancy is also criticized by the medics. The move has been slammed by clinicians as “irresponsible,” with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists reaffirming acetaminophen as the safest first-line fever and pain treatment in pregnancy and warning that scaremongering could harm patients.
America has endured its worst year for measles in more than three decades. CDC counts show 1,544 infections so far, with the sick overwhelmingly unvaccinated patients, compared to 1,950 cases in the previous five years.
The American Academy of Pediatrics likewise told parents there’s no established autism link.
Inside HHS, the surgeons general say, morale is “badly damaged,” with scientists “silenced and sidelined”—a culture they describe as intimidation and censorship.
They recount “heartbreaking calls” from CDC staff who felt “scared and betrayed” after Kennedy publicly denigrated them following a shooting at CDC headquarters. “Repairing this damage requires a leader who respects scientific integrity and transparency,” they write.
Explaining why they’d decided to come together to write the unprecedented article, the authors conclude: “This is bigger than politics. It’s about putting the health of Americans first.”
Asked for comment by the Daily Beast, HHS communications Andrew Nixon said: “The same officials who presided over the decline in America’s public health are now criticizing the first Secretary to confront it head-on. We remain committed to restoring trust, reforming broken health systems, and ensuring that every American has access to real choice in their health care.”
