"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a lot of promises on his way to becoming health secretary. He pledged to Make America Healthy Again, of course, and to restore trust in embattled health agencies. And he said he wouldn't take away anybody's vaccines. In his first year in office, he's already broken most of these promises. The sweeping, chaotic changes he has made since he was sworn in last February have shaken medicine and science in the U.S. to the core."
"Kennedy's most high-profile moves have been around vaccines. Back in June, he fired the panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines and replaced them with skeptics and peddlers of misinformation. In a stunning move, he then fired CDC director Susan Monarez for refusing to get rid of career staffers and rubber-stamp his handpicked vaccine advisory panel's recommendations. With her out of the way, the CDC went on to make alarming changes to the childhood vaccine schedule."
"He also has dramatically reshaped the agencies under the HHS umbrella. New administrations routinely bring in fresh leadership to helm health agencies, but the exodus of talent under Kennedy's watch is less common. Mass exodus Scientific expertise from the top all the way down to bench scientists has been lost through both layoffs and a mass exodus of staff. An analysis by Science found that nearly 2,400 Ph.D.s had exited the three agencies combined last year, two to three times more than in 2024."
Kennedy promised to Make America Healthy Again, restore trust in health agencies, and not remove vaccines, but his first year has reversed many commitments. He replaced the CDC vaccine advisory panel with skeptics and misinformation spreaders, fired CDC director Susan Monarez after she resisted purging career staff, and the CDC altered the childhood vaccine schedule. He reshaped HHS agencies, prompting an unusual exodus of scientific talent through layoffs and departures. Nearly 2,400 Ph.D.s left three agencies last year, far exceeding 2024 levels. More than half of NIH's 27 institutes currently lack directors, disrupting federal research and the academic ecosystem.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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