Kennedy family members call RFK Jr. a ‘threat’ to Americans’ health and call for his resignation
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Kennedy family members call RFK Jr. a ‘threat’ to Americans’ health and call for his resignation
Members of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s family are calling for him to step down as Health secretary. His sister, Kerry Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, issued scathing statements Friday. Kennedy defended his efforts to roll back vaccine recommendations and fire high-level officials at the Centers for Disease Control during a three-hour Senate hearing. The calls from the prominent Democratic family came a day after Kennedy faced bipartisan questioning about his leadership of federal health agencies.
Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, and his nephew, Joseph P. Kennedy III, issued scathing statements Friday, calling for him to resign as head of the Health and Human Services Department.
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The calls from the prominent Democratic family came a day after Kennedy defended his recent efforts to roll back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and fire high-level officials at the Centers for Disease Control during a three-hour Senate hearing.
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and wellbeing of every American,” Joseph P. Kennedy III said in a post on X. The former congressman added: “None of us will be spared the pain he is inflicting.” His aunt echoed those claims, saying that “medical decisions belong in the hands of trained and licensed professionals, not incompetent and misguided leadership.”
This is not the first time Kennedy has been the subject of his family’s ire. Several of his relatives had objected to his presidential run in the last campaign, while others wrote to senators earlier this year calling for them to reject his nomination to be President Trump’s Health secretary given his anti-vaccine views they considered disqualifying.
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Kennedy, a longtime leader in the anti-vaccine movement, has spent the last seven months implementing his once-niche, grassroots movement at the highest level of America’s public health system. The sweeping changes to the agencies tasked with public health policy and scientific research have resulted in thousands of layoffs and the remaking of vaccine guidelines.
The moves — some of which contradict assurances he made during his confirmation hearings — have rattled medical groups and officials in several Democratic-led states, which have responded with their own vaccine advice.