By Yasin Gungor
ISTANBUL (AA) - More than 6,000 current and former health workers, including 887 from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department, demanded HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s resignation in a letter that accused him of "endangering the nation's health by spreading inaccurate health information."
The letter followed an Aug. 8 attack on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when a man fired at the headquarters, and initially gathered 750 signatures before growing substantially since its Aug. 20 release. Kennedy said nothing about the shooting for nearly a day, after first posting pictures online of himself fishing.
Workers specifically accused Kennedy of "facilitating the firing of the Senate-confirmed CDC director, Dr. Susan Monarez" last week – reportedly as she failed to toe Kennedy’s line on vaccine skepticism – and causing key resignations in the agency.
The letter claimed Kennedy appointed "political ideologues who pose as scientific experts and manipulate data to fit predetermined conclusions," including vaccine skeptics to advisory positions.
Additional accusations included "refusing to be briefed by well-regarded CDC experts on vaccine-preventable diseases" and "rescinding the Food and Drug Administration's emergency use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines without providing the data or methods used."
"We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people. Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk," said the workers.
The workers called on US President Donald Trump and Congress to appoint a new secretary if Kennedy refused to resign.
HHS dismissed the letter as "politicizing a tragedy." Kennedy, a longtime vaccine critic who does not have a medical degree or a background in public health, has yet to respond directly to the resignation demands.
The director of the CDC was removed from her position last week, less than a month after her Senate confirmation.
Demetre Daskalakis, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who resigned after Monarez's removal, said he can no longer serve in an environment that he believes "treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality."
The CDC has faced considerable challenges during her tenure, including policy changes and staff cuts implemented under Kennedy's oversight.
Nearly 10,000 HHS workers were laid off in March as part of an effort to shrink the federal workforce, with the aim of reducing the department's staff from 82,000 full-time workers to 62,000.