(Washington) of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. family members are claiming his resignation from the post of health secretary following a controversial hearing at Congress last week, during which this member of the Cabinet Trump was questioned by the two parties on his tumultuous management of federal health agencies.
Mr. Kennedy’s sister, Kerry Kennedy, and her nephew – and a former Congress member – Joseph P. Kennedy III, published scathing statements on Friday, calling for her resignation from the Health and Social Services Department.
These calls from the eminent Democratic family intervene one day after Mr. Kennedy had to defend his recent attempts to withdraw the recommendations for the vaccination against COVID-19 and to dismiss senior officials of the centers for the control and prevention of diseases (CDC) during a three-hour senatorial hearing.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a threat to the health and well-being of all Americans. None of us will be spared by the pain he inflicts.
Joseph P. Kennedy III in a message published on X
His aunt echoes these claims, saying that “medical decisions must be entrusted to trained and approved professionals, and not to incompetent and mavized leaders”.
This is not the first time that Mr. Kennedy has been the target of his family’s anger. Several of his relatives had opposed his candidacy for the presidency during the last campaign, while others wrote to the senators earlier this year to ask them to reject his appointment to the post of health secretary of Donald Trump because of opinions which they deemed disqualifying on vital vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy, a figurehead of the anti-vaccine movement, has spent the last seven months deploying his movement, formerly niche and popular, up to the highest level of the American public health system. The radical changes to agencies responsible for public health and scientific research have led to thousands of layoffs and the overhaul of vaccination directives.
These measures, some of which contradict the assurances given during its confirmation hearings, shaken medical groups and those responsible for several states led by Democrats, which reacted by proposing their own vaccination recommendations.
