Bernie Sanders Demands That Rfk Jr Step Down As Health Secretary

Bernie Sanders has joined successful connected increasing public calls for Donald Trump’s wellness secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, to resign, aft recent chaos crossed US wellness agencies.

In an op-ed published successful nan New York Times connected Saturday, nan Vermont legislator accused Kennedy of “endangering nan wellness of nan American group now and into nan future”, adding: “He must resign.”

“Mr Kennedy and nan remainder of nan Trump administration show us, complete and over, that they want to Make America Healthy Again. That’s a awesome slogan. I work together pinch it. The problem is that since coming into agency President Trump and Mr Kennedy person done precisely nan opposite,” Sanders wrote.

Sanders pointed to nan White House’s firing of Susan Monarez, nan head of nan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, arsenic good arsenic 4 different apical CDC officials who resigned successful protestation this week aft Monarez “refused to enactment arsenic a rubber stamp” for Kennedy’s “dangerous policies”.

“Despite nan overwhelming guidance of nan aesculapian community, caput Kennedy has continued his longstanding crusade against vaccines and his defense of conspiracy theories that person been rejected many times by technological experts,” Sanders wrote.

“Against nan overwhelming assemblage of grounds wrong medicine and science, what are caput Kennedy’s views? … He has absurdly claimed that ‘there’s nary vaccine that is safe and effective’… Who supports caput Kennedy’s views? Not reliable scientists and doctors. One of his starring ‘experts’ that he cites to backmost up his bogus claims connected autism and vaccines had his aesculapian licence revoked and his study retracted from nan aesculapian diary that published it.”

Sanders went connected to add: “The reality is that caput Kennedy has profited from and built a profession connected sowing mistrust successful vaccines. Now, arsenic caput of [the Department of Health and Human Services] he is utilizing his authority to motorboat a full-blown warfare connected science, connected nationalist wellness and connected truth itself.”

Pointing to what he described arsenic “our surgery wellness attraction system”, Sanders said that Kennedy’s repeated attacks against subject and vaccines will make it much difficult for Americans to get lifesaving vaccines.

“Already, nan Trump management has efficaciously taken distant Covid vaccines from galore patient younger adults and kids, unless they conflict their measurement done our surgery wellness attraction system. This intends much doctor’s visits, much bureaucracy and much group paying higher out-of-pocket costs – if they tin negociate to get a vaccine astatine all,” he wrote.

The legislator warned that Kennedy’s adjacent target whitethorn beryllium nan puerility immunization schedule, which involves a database of recommended vaccines for children to protect them from diseases including measles, chickenpox and polio.

“The threat present is that diseases that person been virtually wiped retired because of safe and effective vaccines will resurface and origin tremendous harm,” Sanders said.

In caller days, nan Trump management has faced rare bipartisan pushback pursuing its firing of Monarez, which came amid steep fund cuts to nan CDC’s activity arsenic good arsenic increasing concerns of governmental interference.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has continued to make questionable aesculapian and wellness claims – and has been lambasted successful consequence by experts and lawmakers alike.

Since he assumed activity complete nan wellness department, Kennedy – a longtime anti-vaccine advocator – has fired wellness agency workers and entertained conspiracy theories. Last week, much than 750 existent and erstwhile labor astatine US wellness agencies signed a letter successful which they criticized Kennedy arsenic an “existential threat to nationalist health”.

The wellness agency workers went connected to impeach nan wellness caput of being “complicit successful dismantling America’s nationalist wellness infrastructure and endangering nan nation’s wellness by many times spreading inaccurate wellness information”.

The missive comes aft a deadly shooting astatine nan CDC office successful Atlanta earlier this month, erstwhile a 30-year-old gunman fired much than 180 rounds into nan buildings, sidesplitting a constabulary serviceman earlier dying from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The shooter had been struggling pinch intelligence wellness issues and was influenced by misinformation that led him to judge nan Covid-19 vaccine was making him sick, according to nan gunman’s father.