Joint statement calling for Secretary Kennedy resignation

As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people.   

Forcing high-level CDC expert leaders to turn their back on decades of sound science to meet Kennedy’s agenda puts us all at risk. This final exclamation point on a term defined by repeated efforts to undermine science and public health definitively leaves Americans less safe in a multitude of ways:  

• Food safety: Reduced capacity to protect the public from foodborne illness, including a drastic reduction in the number of infections monitored and a resulting increased risk of foodborne illness. 
• Diagnostic testing and expert consultation: Limited testing capacity and consultation for less common infections where expertise, testing or medications may only be available at CDC. 
• Infection tracking and surveillance: Lack of information about what infections are circulating in local communities, which health care providers rely upon to evaluate and protect patients.  
• Public and provider education: Loss of expertise and trust in what was once the premier source of information to support clinicians and empower patients to make the best decisions to protect themselves and their families. 
• Chronic disease prevention and management: Weakened initiatives that promote healthy behaviors, preventive care and community-based projects to prevent and manage chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. 
• Emergency response: Diminished leadership and capacity to detect and mount effective responses to emerging infectious diseases and bioterror attacks.  
• Longstanding epidemics: Reversal of progress made in ending the HIV epidemic, eliminating viral hepatitis and addressing sexually transmitted infections. 
• Health and safety throughout the lifespan: Loss of expertise and information to support healthy pregnancy, child development and injury prevention. 
• Vaccination: Decimated capacity to make evidence-based vaccine recommendations and objectively oversee vaccine safety. 
• State and local health departments: Loss of expert guidance, technical support and resources to protect communities from routine health threats.  

We are gravely concerned that American people will needlessly suffer and die as a result of policies that turn away from sound interventions. After careful consideration, we insist on Kennedy’s resignation to restore the integrity, credibility and science-driven mission of HHS and all its agencies. Our country needs leadership that will promote open, honest dialogue, not disregard decades of lifesaving science, spread misinformation, reverse medical progress and decimate programs that keep us safe. We are speaking out because protecting public health is our responsibility as physicians, scientists and patient advocates. It is also the responsibility of our elected officials, and we call for their support at this critical moment to protect the health of the nation. It is time to reverse course and begin rebuilding the public health infrastructure overseen by CDC. Kennedy has proven himself unwilling and ill-prepared to lead that effort.  

Thank you,   

Infectious Diseases Society of America  

American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 

American Academy of HIV Medicine  

American Association of Immunologists 

American Public Health Association  

American Society for Microbiology 

American Society for Virology  

Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC)  

AVAC   

Camenzind Solutions LLC  

Fast-Track Cities Institute  

HIV Medicine Association

ID Care 

International Association of Providers of AIDS Care  

NTM Info & Research  

Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society   

Peggy Lillis Foundation 

Seattle Children’s Research Institute  

Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 

Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP) 

Stop TB USA  

Treatment Action Group