{"id":46894,"date":"2025-09-01T22:42:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T03:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46894"},"modified":"2025-09-02T04:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T09:24:05","slug":"former-cdc-directors-cast-rfk-jr-as-dangerous-in-new-york-times-guest-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=46894","title":{"rendered":"Former CDC directors cast RFK Jr. as ‘dangerous’ in New York Times guest essay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s leadership is \u201cunlike anything our country has ever experienced,\u201d nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay<\/a> Monday for The New York Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece \u2014 which appeared online under the headline \u201cWe Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American\u2019s Health\u201d \u2014 came days after President Donald Trump fired CDC director Susan Monarez<\/a>. Through her lawyers, Monarez has maintained she refused to sign off on reckless and unscientific orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy\u2019s actions as the country\u2019s top health official, including his role in Monarez\u2019s ouster, \u201cis unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced,\u201d the former directors wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their essay listed a string of concerns and accused Kennedy of focusing \u201con unproven \u2018treatments\u2019 while downplaying vaccines.\u201d Kennedy, they added, \u201ccanceled investments in promising medical research that will leave us ill prepared for future health emergencies. He replaced experts on federal health advisory committees with unqualified individuals who share his dangerous and unscientific views. He announced the end of U.S. support for global vaccination programs that protect millions of children and keep Americans safe, citing flawed research and making inaccurate statements.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HHS and CDC spokespersons did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essay was signed by William Foege, William Roper, David Satcher, Jeffrey Koplan, Richard Besser, Tom Frieden, Anne Schuchat, Rochelle P. Walensky and Mandy K. Cohen. Their tenures date to the late 1970s and span Democratic and Republican administrations, including Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monarez\u2019s firing last week came amid an escalating conflict over an influential vaccine committee that Kennedy had repeatedly undermined, NBC News reported<\/a>. The secretary had fired committee members and appointed fellow vaccine skeptics in their place. Monarez had grown worried that she would be forced to sign off on new vaccine recommendations that were not supported by science. Her ouster triggered a near-immediate leadership exodus from the CDC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America\u2019s health security,\u201d the former directors wrote in their guest essay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring our respective C.D.C. tenures, we did not always agree with our leaders, but they never gave us reason to doubt that they would rely on data-driven insights for our protection, or that they would support public health workers,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former directors urged Congress to \u201cexercise its oversight authority\u201d over HHS and called on state and local governments and philanthropic givers to \u201cfill funding gaps where they can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe men and women who have joined C.D.C. across generations have done so not for prestige or power, but because they believe deeply in the call to service,\u201d they wrote in conclusion. \u201cThey deserve an H.H.S. secretary who stands up for health, supports science and has their back. So, too, does our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s leadership is \u201cunlike anything our country has ever experienced,\u201d nine former directors and acting directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a scathing guest essay Monday for The New York Times. The piece \u2014 which appeared online under the headline \u201cWe Ran the C.D.C.: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":46895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[7737,1664,34548,28567,34549],"class_list":["post-46894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-article","tag-cdc","tag-former-director","tag-robert-kennedy","tag-the-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46896,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46894\/revisions\/46896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}