More than 750 current and former employees of the US health department have published a letter rebuking Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, saying his “dangerous and deceitful statements” contributed to recent violence at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters.
Officials say the man who fired hundreds of rounds at the CDC this month, killing a police officer, had expressed distrust in the Covid-19 vaccine.
In their letter, the staff said the attack came as “politicized rhetoric” drives mistrust in institutions.
They also said Kennedy had put Americans’ health in danger and hurt the country’s ability to respond to public health emergencies.
“Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., is complicit in dismantling America’s public health infrastructure and endangering the nation’s health by repeatedly spreading inaccurate health information,” they wrote in a letter addressed to both Congress and Kennedy and published on a site called Save HHS.
The signatories were affiliated with the CDC, the National Institutes of Health, and Health and Human Services.
In a statement, a spokesperson for HHS said Kennedy was “standing firmly with CDC employees” to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
“In the wake of this heartbreaking shooting, he traveled to Atlanta to offer his support and reaffirm his deep respect,” the agency said. “Any attempt to conflate widely supported public health reforms with the violence of a suicidal mass shooter is an attempt to politicize a tragedy.”
Kennedy has touted transparency for regaining public trust, saying in a recent interview with Scripps News that “the way we make the public believe in us is by telling the truth – what we know and what we don’t know”.
It is rare for government employees to publicly chastise a cabinet secretary in a letter to Congress, even in smaller numbers.
Since Kennedy was confirmed for the post, figures and groups outside the government, such as the head of the American Public Health Association, have criticised his staff reductions and his moves to limit vaccines.
In their letter, the staffers said Kennedy had spread misinformation on several occasions, including when he called the CDC a “cesspool of corruption”.
They also accused him of sowing mistrust when he cast doubt on the safety and efficacy of the measles vaccine during a growing outbreak, and said his ousting of all the members of an independent vaccine advisory committee, as well as his mass firings, had created risks for the public.
“These dangerous and deceitful statements and actions have contributed to the harassment and violence experienced by CDC staff,” they also said.
The letter ended with a list of three demands for Kennedy to address by 2 September. They wanted him to “stop spreading inaccurate health information”, “affirm CDC’s scientific integrity”, and “guarantee the safety of the HHS workforce”.
It is unclear what will happen if the secretary does not respond.
Investigators said 30-year-old Patrick Joseph White fired 500 rounds at the CDC complex on 8 August, and that he blamed the Covid shot for making him depressed and suicidal.
Officer David Rose – a former Marine – was killed as he responded to the scene.
Kennedy reached out to staff after the shooting, saying “no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others”.
Before becoming health secretary, Kennedy spread a number of false claims about vaccines, including debunked theories that the shots are linked with autism.
Since taking office he has continued to make inaccurate statements and has sought to remake how the government regulates and recommends immunizations to the American public.
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