Some 750 federal well being staff signed the letter two weeks after a gunman fired 180 bullets into CDC buildings.
Lots of of federal well being staff have written to United States Well being and Human Companies (HHS) Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, imploring him to “cease spreading inaccurate well being data”, weeks after a gunman fired hundreds of bullets into the headquarters of the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.
Signatories to the letter on Wednesday, together with a whole bunch of present HHS workers, accused Kennedy of “sowing public distrust by questioning the integrity and morality of CDC’s workforce”, together with by calling the general public well being company a “cesspool of corruption”, throughout his 2024 failed presidential election campaign.
In addition they mentioned that Kennedy’s insurance policies, together with cuts to thousands of HHS staff, have been creating “harmful gaps in areas like infectious ailments detection, employee security, and power illness prevention and response”.
“The deliberate destruction of belief in America’s public well being workforce places lives in danger,” the employees mentioned, noting that Kennedy had unfold false claims concerning the measles vaccine, undermining the general public well being outbreak response to the illness.
In addition they famous that the latest assault on the CDC constructing was one other instance of the risks ensuing from the well being secretary’s phrases.
The shooter, who had publicly expressed his distrust of COVID-19 vaccines, opened fireplace on the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, fatally capturing police officer David Rose, 33, earlier than dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on August 8.
In a press release shared with US media retailers, the HHS mentioned that “Secretary Kennedy is standing firmly with CDC staff – each on the bottom and throughout each heart – making certain their security and wellbeing stay a prime precedence”.
Kennedy has lengthy been accused of spreading vaccine misinformation, together with in a 2019 go to to Samoa, which got here months earlier than a measles outbreak on the South Pacific island which killed 81 folks, principally infants and younger youngsters.
In an interview with The Guardian newspaper earlier this yr, Samoa’s prime minister, Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa, expressed shock that Kennedy, who denies being towards vaccines, was chosen as US well being secretary.
Extra lately, Kennedy has cancelled a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding for analysis into mRNA vaccines, a medical breakthrough credited with stopping thousands and thousands of deaths from COVID-19 and having the potential to deal with ailments akin to most cancers and HIV, in accordance with the Worldwide Vaccine Entry Heart at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Faculty of Public Well being.
William Foege, who served because the director of the CDC from 1977 to 1983, penned an article in US well being outlet Stat Information this week, urging public well being staff to “not again down”.
“We are going to reside by this drought of values, ideas, and information and once more apply our skills to enhancing international well being and happiness,” he wrote.
Foege, who has been credited with taking part in an instrumental function in eradicating smallpox, a virus that was deadly in 30 p.c of instances, went on to warn that Kennedy’s phrases have been harmful.
“Within the meantime, be clear. Kennedy’s phrases could be as deadly because the smallpox virus. Individuals deserve higher,” he wrote.
