Former CDC heads warn Kennedy is endangering Americans – Reuters

Former CDC heads warn Kennedy is endangering Americans

By Valerie Volcovici, September 1, 20259:09 AM PDT, Updated September 1, 2025

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Nine former directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under Republican and Democratic presidents warned on Monday that the decisions made by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., culminating in the firing of the CDC’s director, are putting Americans’ health at risk.

The warning, laid out in a guest opinion essay in the New York Times, comes days after the Trump administration fired Susan Monarez, less than a month into her tenure and four other directors resigned in protest, deepening disarray at the nation’s main public health agency.

Monarez had refused to adopt new limitations on the availability of some vaccines urged by Kennedy, saying they went against scientific evidence.

The nine essay authors, who include Dr. William Foege, who served as director of the CDC from 1977-1983 to Dr. Mandy Cohen, who led the agency from 2023 to 2025, said all of Kennedy’s moves to shake up U.S. federal health agencies, from firing thousands of employees to replacing health advisory board members to ending global vaccination programs, put all Americans at risk.

“We are worried about the wide-ranging impact that all these decisions will have on America’s health security,” they wrote, adding that rural communities and vulnerable populations will be most at risk. “This is unacceptable, and it should alarm every American, regardless of political leanings,” they wrote.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/former-cdc-heads-warn-kennedy-is-endangering-americans-2025-09-01/