December ninth, 2024
To Members of the US Senate:
We, the undersigned Nobel Laureates, are writing to ask you to
oppose the affirmation of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Secretary of the
Division of Well being and Human Companies (DHHS).
The proposal to position Mr. Kennedy answerable for the federal businesses
liable for defending the well being of Americans and for
conducting the medical analysis that advantages our nation and the
remainder of humanity has been extensively criticized on a number of grounds. In
addition to his lack of credentials or related expertise in
medication, science, public well being, or administration, Mr. Kennedy has
been an opponent of many health-protecting and life-saving
vaccines, resembling people who forestall measles and polio; a critic of
the well-established optimistic results of fluoridation of consuming
water; a promoter of conspiracy theories about remarkably
profitable remedies for AIDS and different illnesses; and a belligerent
critic of revered businesses (particularly the Meals and Drug
Administration, the Facilities for Illness Management, and the Nationwide
Institutes of Well being). The chief of DHHS ought to proceed to nurture
and improve— not threaten—these essential and extremely revered
establishments and their staff.
In view of his document, inserting Mr. Kennedy answerable for DHHS would
put the general public’s well being in jeopardy and undermine America’s world
management within the well being sciences, in each the general public and industrial
sectors.